Undying Hatred Takes a New Twist
by okmeamithinknow
Summary: Sheen and Libby set Jimmy and Cindy up on a blind date in an attempt to finally get them together. Unfortunately Cindy's kidnapped by one of Jimmy's long lost villains who's bent on a lot more than just Jimmy's destruction this time.
1. Only One

Only One

I don't own Jimmy Neutron, if I did, there's no way it would have ended that lamely!

**A.N.** All the kids are now 18ish, except Sheen who's obviously older if you've paid any attention to the show! Also Italics indicates flashbacks.

Jimmy's POV

I thought I had seen her across the room. She was already sitting at a table at the Candy Bar. I approached the table cautiously not really knowing what to expect. It was just like Sheen had said, black dress, long blonde hair, and light lavender rose in her hand. Of course this was just from behind. Somehow I didn't think this date was going to go so well. I still cannot believe I ever let Sheen Estevez set me up on a date.

"_Come on Jimmy, you need to get over this whole Betty Quinlin thing. It's been seven years!" Sheen had exclaimed_

"_7 years 8 months and three days," I replied_

"_Yeah Jim," Carl piped in, "There are plenty of other fish in the sea, and you can't spend all your life in the lab or doing homework."_

"_But I have a test coming up in class, a paper, and Goddard needs updating, and I have umm… umm…" I stammered searching for some reply, knowing that sooner or later Sheen was going to talk me into this blind date he had been pushing me to go on. _

"_Come on Jimmy! I told Libby I could get a date for her friend!"_

"_No Sheen!" I said finally exasperated with him, walking out of my living room._

_I don't know where I was planning on going; I just knew that I couldn't stay there. I didn't want to date anyone, well not just anyone, especially not one of Libby's friends from college. Yeah they may be in college and no offense to them, but really who has the ability to keep up with me? I'm a genius after all. No one's ever been able to keep up with me. Well that's not exactly true, there has been one girl, not that I would admit it to anyone, especially Carl and Sheen. They still think I have something burning for Betty Quinlin. _

_Betty Quinlin, oh the memories there, or rather lack of them. Yeah I liked her, but that was so elementary of me. I mean that was 7 years ago like Sheen said. I pretty much gave up when she went to the first school dance with Nick Dean. I had just played it up that I liked her because well I couldn't tell the guys who I really liked. I still hadn't admitted it to myself then either. I had just come to grips with it this past year in college. _

_She and I had separated ways after high school, just as we all had. This just happened to be the first day of Thanksgiving break and I was back in Retroville visiting home for the first time semester. I hadn't realized how much I missed our intellectual debates, well to be honest arguments, until I had left for school this fall. _

_I was deep in thought when suddenly… _

_Bam!_

_I fell to the ground, knocking over someone in the process._

"_Nerdtron!" _

_Oh great! I thought, Just what I need now. Back in town for less than a day and already I had messed things up!_

"_Why don't you just watch where you're going!" Cindy exclaimed_

"_Sorry Cindy I didn't see you there" I said offering her a hand up._

_She stood and there was an awkward silence that only Cindy and I seem to be able to create. Looking around I realize how far I had come in my ranting angry walk. I don't know how but in the ten minutes I had been walking I had come to downtown Retroville._

_Cindy still looked like the same old girl she had been growing up. Well, at least she hadn't changed since I had seen her three months ago. She still had her amazing green eyes, same gorgeous blonde hair, and same saucy attitude. Yeah we still had our spats like in grade school, but they became less frequent and less violent. I still couldn't believe it had taken me so long to realize that I liked her. I should have known sooner but well I may be a genius but when it comes to women, I would have to say that I am a complete idiot. _

"_Uh…I take it that you're back from school for the holidays?" I asked trying to fill the void where conversation should have taken place._

"_Yes and some of us are going to try and enjoy it" She said._

"_Aw I said I was sorry."_

_Again a looming silence followed my comment. Somehow I could feel the silence this time become a bit less foreboding, but still I felt the need to fill it with something. Finally I couldn't take it anymore._

"_Any... Anyway where were you headed?" I asked, curious to find out why she was so far from our neighborhood._

"_If you must know I was going to meet Libby at the Candy Bar. I haven't seen her in forever it seems and we're having a reunion of sorts."_

"_Oh… does Sheen know she's back in town yet?" I asked chuckling._

"_Libby's back in town!" a voice in the distance pierced the silence._

"_I guess he does now," Cindy said giggling slightly._

_Sheen and Carl ran up behind us. Inside I sighed. My chance to talk to Cindy alone was gone, and I didn't know when I would get a chance to talk to her before we both had to leave to go back to school. The four of us continued walking. _

"_Jimmy, have you given any thought to what I said?" Sheen asked._

"_No! And that's final," I yelled._

"_Wow Jimmy," Libby said, "still trying to work out those anger issues?"_

_She and Cindy laughed as the five of us entered the Candy Bar, just like old times. None of us had really changed since elementary school. Yeah Carl had lost some weight and gotten rid of his glasses, but he was still the number one member of the Llama Love Society. He was now studying to get a business degree so that he would actually know what he was doing with his llama farm that he had opened up shortly after graduation. I still don't know how he had convinced his mom to let him leave the house. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Sheen would be moving in with him as well, though that thought should have deterred Mrs. Wheezer. _

_Sheen was still the Ultra lord fanatic that he was back in elementary school, but his other passion, Libby, kept his mind focused on other things as well. He also gave up wearing his Ultra Lord t-shirt in high school after some heated arguing with Libby and a trip to the mall._

_The two of them now lived on a small farm just outside of Retroville. It had plenty of room to grow, as two of them put it. All of us knew however that neither of them were thinking the same thing. Carl about llamas and Sheen about his and Libby's future. I suspect that soon, maybe during Christmas he's going to propose. It really wouldn't shock any of us, seeing as how, well, he keeps talking about it._

_Libby too hadn't changed much. She, like Cindy and I had done, had gone off to college to pursue a career in music and business. She was still unsure of what she wants to do, whether it is managing a group like Graystar or be a singer herself. Sheen, we knew, would support her in anything she did. _

_We all sat down at the table and Sam walked over to take our order._

"_I'm busy Friday anyway," I said. _

"_Friday?" Cindy inquired._

I walked over to the table. I knew who it was before I had even started walking over; well at least I thought I did. This wasn't going to be pleasant. I mean she would be upset, though I didn't mind so much. Maybe then I could finally tell her. I ran my hands through my hair nervously.

"Cindy," I whispered, though there was no way she heard me because at that moment every window exploded throwing glass shards everywhere.

I ducked behind a booth to protect myself from the pointy debris. The room filled with smoke and a familiar scream pierced the darkness ensued. I had heard it many times before but never so gut wrenching. Instantly I sprung up and pressed a button on my watch to clear the smoke from the smoke bombs, but instead of Cindy all that remained in her seat was her purse and a disc.


	2. Thanksgiving Gifts and Those Nights

Disclaimer: Again if I owned Jimmy Neutron, there's no way I would end the show, at least not with the whole crush thing looming on the horizon!

Nor do I own **Skillet's Those Nights, **well technically I own the Cd it's on, but not the rights to the song itself. Darn!

A.N. This one starts before Jimmy and Cindy run into each other in the previous chapter.

* * *

Cindy's POV

Libby was going to find me a date. She had told me to keep Friday free and had promised me it had something to do with our Thanksgiving presents. Usually we exchange gifts the Saturday before. I know it sounds weird, but it was something that the two of us had started when we were younger. We wanted a holiday for just the two of us to celebrate. It was Libby's idea actually. Each year we pick something that we think the other doesn't appreciate enough, and then give them a gift to embody it. It's one of the reasons I had mellowed out over the years, it forced me to see what I was either denying or not paying attention to and made me more appreciative towards the things that I had missed.

One year Libby gave me a picture of my parents. Another year, after a particularly bad of fighting with Sheen, I gave her an Ultra Lord mask. Sometimes they're more subtle than that, but other times I can pretty much figure out what she's getting me. She's pretty good at figuring out what I'm going to get her every year as well.

This year I knew I had to get her something special, after all it was our first year of gift giving since graduation. So when Sheen had called me in late October begging me for help, I knew exactly what to get her.

* * *

Saturday morning I headed out for the Candy Bar, just for a precursor to this afternoon's gift exchange. I was really excited about it. I mean, it just wasn't any old year that my best friend gets proposed to. I had just flown in for the holiday last night. Libby and I had arranged to meet like three or four weeks earlier. I couldn't wait to see her again. I couldn't wait to see everyone again. I was so lost in thought as I walked down the street that I didn't notice him until it was too late.

"Nerdtron! Why don't you just watch where you're going?" I cried the words coming unbidden from my mouth.

I guess I wasn't as tamed as I thought I was. What a great way to start off the week long break from school that we got. I always fell back on my primal instincts when threatened or startled in this case.

Darn it, I thought, here comes another one of our fights. But instead of the fight I had prepared myself for, I got an apology. I was so boggled by this reaction, I don't remember what happened next until Sheen and Carl joined us.

Carl and Jimmy talked a bit as I fell in step with Sheen. I elbowed him slightly and winked, giving him a thumbs up as he handed me a small box which both he and I knew held Libby's engagement ring. Man I really wished that I had someone who cared enough to arrange things with someone as scary as me. Yeah I knew what everyone said about me. Just because I could kick anyone's butt that came along didn't mean that I was scary. But truly I had mellowed out a lot. After all, Sheen was talking to me without fear.

"Jimmy, have you given any thought to what I said?" Sheen asked.

"No! And that's final," he nearly screamed in frustration.

"Wow Jimmy," Libby said, "still trying to work out those anger issues?"

I ran to hug Libby. She and I laughed at the excitement of our reunion, and at her joke. It was so hard being away from her, but what did you expect since our majors were so completely different. We tried to stay in touch, but it was hard.

"I'm busy Friday anyway," he said.

* * *

I should have known Libby would have tried him first. Of course him first. She knew above all people how I had felt about him in elementary, junior high, and high school. Of course I had to keep it hidden. Mother wouldn't approve and anything that Mother didn't approve of didn't happen.

But now that I knew that he wasn't going to be the one they set me up with I was disappointed. For all I know now he has a girlfriend somewhere out there. But then again he didn't mention anything when we left. Oh well, I guess I would have to wait until Friday to find out what pathetic loser Libby tried to find to replace Jimmy.

I don't know how Jimmy and I never got together as a couple. We were pretty close during high school, especially the summer between freshmen and sophomore year. That was the year my parents got divorced and I ended up spending a lot of time over at his house.

_

* * *

The first night, I had gone walking out on the street. I just couldn't stand listening to my parents argue any more. I mean over the years it had been bad, but that summer, after my dad lost his job things got even worse. Obviously Mom didn't get it that it wasn't my dad's fault he got fired. The company just no longer had a need for him there and had to get rid of him. Mom couldn't take that she was the only source of income in the family, and she thought it was failure_

"_Vortex's don't fail!" she would say. _

_So I went for a walk in the park. I didn't know where I was going, just that I had to get away from the yelling. You could hear it all over the neighborhood, no joke. Their voices followed me all the way to the end of the street. Somehow I ended up sitting on a park bench crying my eyes out silently, just in case anyone was listening, because crying was also something Vortex's "didn't do"_

_I don't know if he saw me leave the house or if he just happened to be there at the time, but the next thing I knew there was a hand on my back_

"_Cindy," he whispered, "are you ok? It's really late."_

_I just shook my head. He sat down on the bench next to me and took my hand._

"_Go away," I said, not really meaning it. Yeah right like I wanted to be alone at a time like this._

"_I'm not leaving until you feel better," he said._

_Well this made me cry harder. To have my rival treat me so nicely when my own parents couldn't treat anyone, let alone their own daughter kindly, was brutal. As sobs wracked my body I felt him slip an arm around me. I turned into his chest and bawled like a baby. For once in his life Jimmy Neutron didn't try to fix anything and for once in my life I actually let myself be vulnerable. He just sat there in silence and held me. When I finally gained composure and looked up at him; he just smiled._

"_You want to come back to the lab? It's a lot warmer there, and you can stay as long as you like"_

_There were a lot of nights like that. Eventually it became a Friday night usual thing. Us hanging out in his lab, me to escape my parents' tyranny and fighting, and him to keep me company and not let me wallow in my own self pity. We had a lot of fun. _

**I remember when **

**We used to laugh **

**About nothing at all **

**It was better than going mad **

**From trying to solve all the problems we're going through **

**Cause on those nights we would stand and never fall **

**Together we faced it all **

**Remember when we'd **

**Stay up late and we'd talk all night **

**In a dark room lit by the TV light **

**Through all the hard times in my life **

**Those nights kept me alive **

**We'd listen to the radio play all night **

**Didn't want to go home to another fight **

**Through all the hard times in my life **

**Those nights kept me alive **

_But when summer ended, and my parents finally finished signing the divorce papers and dad left for good, things went back to they way they had been._

* * *

Anyway, I still had feelings for him. Libby knew, and so did Sheen by default. I thought him being a genius and all, he would have figured it out by now, but he still hadn't. I chalk it up to my amazing acting abilities and my fear of being rejected by another person. 


	3. Villain unmasked

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, thus the large loans I have to pay.

A.N. Thanks for all the review, well almost all of them…. Because I don't get how I can be imaginative and not creative at the same time… oh well carrying on.

**

* * *

**

Jimmy's POV

_I walked over to the table. I knew who it was before I had even started walking over; well at least I thought I did. This wasn't going to be pleasant. I mean she would be upset, though I didn't mind so much. Maybe then I could finally tell her. I ran my hands through my hair nervously._

_"Cindy," I whispered, though there was no way she heard me because at that moment every window exploded throwing glass shards everywhere._

_I ducked behind a booth to protect myself from the pointy debris. The room filled with smoke and a familiar scream pierced the darkness ensued. I had heard it many times before but never so gut wrenching. Instantly I sprung up and pressed a button on my watch to clear the smoke from the smoke bombs, but instead of Cindy all that remained in her seat were her purse and a disc._

* * *

I grabbed the aforementioned disc and purse, and ran. 

To many observers it seemed cowardice or guilt implying that I was the one who set off the bombs themselves, but in fact I knew that the police force in Retroville hadn't changed and still struggled to figure out what was happening. Heck my dad could have solved more crimes as Donut Boy than the entire police task force that they had put together to "defeat" the villains that challenged me over the years. Obviously I had done that on my own, thank you very much.

"Goddard! Call Libby, Sheen, and Carl and have them meet me in the lab!" I yelled into my watch.

I scrambled into my car as fast as I could and threw it into gear. Knowing I had to get home as fast as I could, I flipped the switch to turn on its altered engine and literally flew to my house. I ran to the clubhouse still in the backyard. Carl and Libby were already there.

"What's wrong Jim?" Carl asked.

"You set me up with **Cindy** and now she's gone," I said, holding up her purse.

"No way boy, you did not steal her purse behind her back. We set you guys up on that date cause we knew the both of you were miserable without each other. Sheen thought the Candy Bar would bring back old memories of the good times, and do you know how hard it is to get reservations at a good restaurant the day after Thanksgiving?" Libby said. "You were supposed to be on a date with her, not robbing her blind"

"I'm not robbing her blind. She's gone!" I yelled.

"Who's gone?" Sheen asked approaching us.

"Cindy!" the three of us yelled

We entered the lab and I walked over to the computer.

"I found this disc where Cindy was sitting. Maybe it was left there by whoever kidnapped her" I said slipping the disc into the computer.

"Hello again James," said a bodingly evil voice. It was so badly distorted that I couldn't make out who it was so I turned on the Voice Recognizer 5000.

"You haven't heard from me in a while I know, but well it's about time I came back now isn't." I heard some malevolent laughter in the back ground.

"It's quite obvious that I have your precious Cindy but the questions are, why do I have her and who am I? Well I'll help you out with the first one. I need her not only to help get rid of you, but to aid in my master plan… as for the second question, well I'm sure that you have your computer performing some sort of voice recognition program. Don't worry about it though. I've already taken care of that. You see there's a super virus encrypted onto this disc and it should be done destroying your computer in 3… 2…1"

"Damn it!" I shouted. "That bastard! They were right! I couldn't even get a read out. It took too long."

"Yeah well that virus didn't help any" Libby piped in.

"Who would do something like this?"

"Duh Carl, it could be any of Jimmy's enemies," Sheen exclaimed.

"The problem is which one is it?" I said

"There's the Yokians," Libby said.

"Nope they're toast, or should I say scrambled"

"Meldar?"

"No, April would have mentioned something the last time I talked to her"

"Boy you been talkin' to April again" Libby said giving me the evil eye.

"She needed help with the new fall line up" I said defensively.

"Uh huh" she said giving me a skeptical look

"What about those yucky space bandits" Carl posed. "You know Zix, Travoltron and Tee"

"They've kept up the being good to people thing. Last time I talked to them they were thinking of helping out April with the children's programming."

"Baby Eddie?"

"Eddie went to reform school when he blew up his mom's car at age 8."

"Grandma Taters?"

"She retired from villainy a couple years ago. Don't you remember the party we went to?"

"Oh yeah"

"Beautiful Gorgeous" Sheen said, "I hope it's her! She's one hot mamacita!"

"Sheen!" his fiancé exclaimed.

"Just kidding Libbs"

"Anyway, she and the Junkman got married right after they escaped the Cretaceous"

"Dr. Moist? He could have done it. You know stolen Cindy to do more experiments on her" Carl said.

"Nah, I heard something about him drowning last month. Something involving porpoises??" Libby laughed.

"What about that one cop who framed you for robbing the bank?" Sheen asked.

"Bueford Stormshuckle? He's still in prison for other crimes committed in other states against other geniuses"

"Yoo Yee? It seems like something he would do. Leaving a Cd like that for you to find. That's what he did when he kidnapped Libby," Sheen said.

"Yeah, but why would he come after me?"

"Well the only reason that Sheen won was because of your dance machine thing" Carl interjected. "Maybe he's still mad about that"

"I don't think he has the technology to create and encrypt a super virus on a disc."

"Well who is??"

"There are only three people that I think could possibly have that much technology: Professor Calamitous, Eustace Strytch, and my evil clone. I haven't heard from any of them in a long time too," I sighed.

"But which one is it?" Sheen asked.

* * *

A.N. Who do you think it is?? Who could really want to hurt Jimmy that bad after all this time? And what's their master plan? Yeah I know I'm evil for not telling you just yet! 


	4. Americas Least Wanted & Ultra Lord Pants

Disclaimer: Please! If you even think I own Jimmy Neutron, you would be sadly mistaken!

* * *

_Jimmy's POV_

Calamitous, Strytch, and Evil Jimmy. They're the only ones who could have possibly kidnapped Cindy. But like Sheen said who is it. I didn't have any clue as to which of them it could be. I hadn't heard from any of them for over five years now.

I hadn't heard from Evil Jimmy since he was captured in the Dark Matter Dimension, nor had I heard from Strytch since Timmy Turner and I kicked his butt with the help of Cosmo and Wanda. That was so long ago that it would be hard to believe that they were still out there trying to get me.

My last encounter with Calamitous was less than stellar. It was probably one of the lamest plans that he's come up with. Again he tried to kidnap Goddard in a futile attempt to try and lure me into a trap of his. Of course he didn't take into account that I had just recently updated his software with a new security system inside. I didn't even have to try, no brain blast, nothing and that was, like I said, about five years ago.

"Jimmy we'll find her" Sheen, a voice of hope, said. "We already have a clue as to who it is. I mean unless it's some new villain that suddenly decided to start hating you, but then again that's not possible is it?"

"No I'm pretty sure it's someone we already know."

"Jim there's not much we can do tonight, why don't we wait until the morning?" Carl suggested.

"I have to fly back tomorrow, and even if I wanted to work on it tomorrow, we can't. My computer's destroyed and the only other one I have access to is the one back at my apartment," I replied hanging my head dejectedly in my hands.

"Oh" sighed a very bereaved Libby. "So there's nothing we can do?"

Sheen walked over to here and stuck his arms around her as she began to weep.

"Well, we can all do some research on the whereabouts of my missing malefactors. Until we have more data I think it's impossible, and rather improbable that we can correctly make a hypothesis as to where she is."

* * *

_The Next Week_

I sat down at my computer with a sigh. It was a good thing that I had all my files backed up at this location. Even though the disc had fried VOX back home, I still had all my data. Still no sign of Cindy or her capture. We had divided up the investigation. I took Evil Jimmy since feasibly I was the only one with enough technical know how to attempt to track my clone. Sheen and Carl had taken Professor Calamitous knowing that anything on him would be easy to find, and Libby had taken Eustace.

* * *

_**BrainBlast has just signed in**_

_**MusicalDiva: hey Jimmy**_

_**BrainBlast: hi**_

_**MusicalDiva: Have you found anything yet?**_

_**BrainBlast: Nothing on Evil Jimmy, no massive plots to destroy me.**_

_**MusicalDiva: really?**_

_**BrainBlast: yeah**_

_**BrainBlast: I don't even have proof that he made it back from the dark matter dimension yet. Though I'm running some diagnostic tests to see if it's even possible, as well as running through all the atmospheric anomalies that may have occurred if he reentered our dimension. **_

_**BrainBlast: It's gonna take another week at least to run through all those files though. **_

_**BrainBlast: Do you know how many atmospheric anomalies happen in a single year?**_

_**MusicalDiva: Ummm….. A lot**_

_**BrainBlast: Yeah basically, anyway what do you have?**_

_**MusicalDiva: Actually I do have a bit!**_

_**BrainBlast: Nice!**_

_**MusicalDiva: He was in the paper about eight months prior to Cindy's kidnapping. **_

_**BrainBlast: What villainous act did he commit?**_

_**MusicalDiva: he didn't. Nothing villainous.**_

_**BrainBlast: WHAT?!**_

_**MusicalDiva: Nope, his dad died, leaving him an orphan and 3.5 billion dollars sitting in a bank account. The paperwork for his father's will went wrong, or something because the money's still sitting in the bank account, but Eustace can't touch it for some reason. **_

_**BrainBlast: Did they say why?**_

_**MusicalDiva: The paper wasn't clear and he hasn't been seen since he sold the mansion to make some money to stay alive. No one's seen him for a good six months now.**_

_**UltraLord4ever has just signed in.**_

_**BrainBlast: Sheen!**_

_**MusicalDiva: Hey babe**_

_**UltraLord4ever: hi guys. Carl's here too**_

_**MusicalDiva: Yo Carl**_

_**BrainBlast: Libby's just finished giving me the details about Eustace. He's been gone for six months, and I can't find verification of Evil Jimmy anywhere.**_

_**UltraLord4ever: Well you won't get much from us here either. Carl tried the reels in the library, whatever that is, and couldn't find anything either.**_

_**UltraLord4ever: Nuh uh! This is Carl! I so did too find something.**_

_**BrainBlast: Hey Carl. What'd you find?**_

_**UltraLord4ever: Calamitous broke out of jail three years ago. Retroville police have been looking into it, but they still haven't seen him anywhere. **_

_**UltraLord4ever: America's Most Wanted did a special a year and a half ago on the top ten most dimwitted criminals and he made number two followed by Dr. Moist. **_

_**MusicalDiva: Must be a killer blow to fall behind dr. moist for lamest villain!**_

_**BrainBlast: lol**_

_**UltraLord4ever: There were reports that he was staying with his daughter and son-in-law in orbit of the moon.**_

_**BrainBlast: have they been confirmed or are they just rumors??**_

_**UltraLord4ever: Dunno, that's where the reports stop. Anyway I'm gonna give you Sheen back now.**_

_**MusicalDiva: K laterz Carl!**_

_**UltraLord4ever: Hey I'm back!!!!!!!!!**_

_**BrainBlast: Ok so to sum everything up we have nothing on anything???**_

* * *

There was a slight thud on my door. I wasn't expecting anyone, especially at this late hour. It was almost one in the morning. Who would be up at this hour? Maybe it was Cindy! I knew that hoping that would be a puerile hope, but we had escaped so many other times. Maybe she had escaped some how.

* * *

_**BrainBlast: hold on a sec guys**_

_**UltraLord4ever: k**_

* * *

I opened the door, and found nothing. I scanned the area up and down my hall. I suppose it was just one of my neighbors playing a childish prank on me.

'I don't have time for this! For all I know Cindy could be dead!' I thought, when I noticed a disc lying at my feet. I grabbed it and rushed back into the apartment.

* * *

_**BrainBlast: You won't believe it!**_

_**MusicalDiva: What?!**_

_**UlraLord4Ever: Yeah Jim, what's up?**_

_**BrainBlast: another cd just showed up at my doorstep. I heard someone knocking and when I answered it, the hall was quizzically empty. I found a disc on the floor, same kind as the last one**_

_**MusicalDiva: Have you listened to it yet?**_

_**BrainBlast: No not yet, but I don't want to destroy another computer. Brb**_

* * *

I placed the CD in my stereo. I pushed play. Nothing happened.

'_Ok'_ I thought, _'maybe it's a DVD'_

I walked over to the television and opened the DVD player. The disc instantly started. A blank screen appeared on the monitor.

"Hello again James."

I hit the pause button, and ran back to the computer.

* * *

_**BrainBlast: Guys! It's from HIM!!!!! I'm gonna go get my Port-a-Portal. You guys may wanna see this!!!**_

_**UlraLord4Ever: K Jim we'll be ready!!!**_

_**MusicalDiva: Sheen just make sure you're wearing pants!**_

_**UlraLord4Ever: But… but…. It's just you guys!! Plus you're gonna see me in my boxers when we get married!!!**_

_**MusicalDiva: Just put your pants on!!**_

_**BrainBlast: Sheen just listen to her and get some pants on. Libby I'll get you first.**_

* * *

I dashed into my closet and pushed a button that opened the retinal scanner I had built into the wall. Scanning my eye the wall flipped open to reveal a mini lab with a wall filled with my gadgets, filed alphabetically of course. Grabbing the Port-a-Portal 3000 off the wall I ran back into the living room. It was more compact than the first two which is why it could fit into my closet.

I pushed the button and entered my destination, Libby's apartment in California. She appeared instantly on the other end. Purple tank top and pajama pants adorned her body. She looked good, but my heart belonged to Cindy.

"Hey Libs" I said hesitantly. "I'll get Carl and Sheen in a sec. You can go get a drink out of the kitchen, and grab a seat on the couch."

She walked into the other room as I transferred the information to get Carl and Sheen. Instantaneously there they were. Walking through the portal I noticed what Sheen was wearing and would have burst out laughing if the situation had been a bit less stressful. He was wearing pants alright, but unfortunately we hadn't been specific enough to prevent him from wearing his favorite Ultra Lord pajama pants that were so old and faded that they were littered with holes. It was a wonder why they hadn't disintegrated off of him by now.

"Boy what do you think you're wearing?" Libby asked.

"Well you said pants!" the hyper-active boy exclaimed.

"Never mind that! We need to watch the video!!!!" I exclaimed.

"Ok Jim. No need to get vicious about it," Carl said plopping down on the couch next to Libby and Sheen.

"You must really love her," Libby said.

"As a matter of fact, I do!" I shouted at her, leaving Carl and Sheen awestruck on either side of her.

"I knew it! I knew it!" she exclaimed. "That's why you agreed to the blind date! You knew it was going to be her!"

"I had a suspicion that it would be Cindy after a conversation with her on the day you and Sheen got engaged."

"And you still went, why?"

"Errr… Ummm… I…" I stammered.

"You were gonna tell her weren't you?"

"Yeah" I sighed.

"We'd better find her then. Play the video," Libby said.

I pressed the play button.

* * *

"I see that you still haven't figured out who I am, or I'm sure you would have broken down my door trying to save your precious girlfriend. Don't worry she's still alive. Don't believe me… look"

A picture came onto screen. It was Cindy with the newspaper from the day before. The camera zoomed in to her still form. Both her hands and feet were handcuffed to the bed she was laying on. She had cuts and bruises as well a gaping black eye on her right eye, but I could tell she was still breathing.

"She's still wearing the dress we picked out for the date," Libby gasped.

Cindy's arm moved as she started to rouse. She struggled to look up at the camera.

"Say hello to your precious Jimmy, my dear"

"Jim… Ji… Jimmy??" she said her speech undeniably slurred.

"Yes there's a good girl tell him hello for me," the voice told her.

"Jimmy" she wheezed. "It's… it's yuh…. you… it's you."

"Ah ah ah. I can't have you exposing me just yet. I'm not through with you," said the voice as a goon with huge muscles lumbered over to her with a syringe in his hand.

The video faded to black and the last thing we heard was her whispers that grew faintly into nothing.

"Eww… you… stop….. Jimmy…. Help…. It's "

* * *

A.N. Sorry it's a long chapter. I thought about making it a bit shorter, but I thought that we should at least know what's on the DVD. Again I know I'm evil, I'm not going to tell you who it is just yet, though I will let you know that someone is very close to my logic when it comes to who the villain is.

_**I also don't own America's Most Wanted either.**_


	5. Say Hello To James

Disclaimer: We all know that I don't own it! Though if you wanted to get it for me for Christmas I would be eternally grateful!!!

**A.N. **So guess what! I'm finally going to tell you who the villain is! I loved leaving you in suspense, but I can't really write anymore without revealing who it is…. So drum roll please…..

* * *

Cindy's POV

I sat in the Candy Bar in my best black dress. Cut perfectly in all the right places, it made me look amazing, or at least that's what Libby told me when I showed it to her. I still had no idea who she was setting me up with, but it didn't matter. I had resolved to have a good time even though I knew it wasn't going to be Jimmy.

I was so glad though, that Sheen's proposal had gone according to plan.

_

* * *

I handed her the ring._

_When she looked at me confused, I smiled demurely and said, "Well this year I didn't really have anything to give you. Some guy on the street though asked me to give this to you, but I haven't the faintest idea why."_

_She still had the confused look on her face when she asked me what was going on._

_"I don't know," I said as Sheen dashed in through the door dressed in a full tuxedo. "But wait… Here's the guy who gave it to me. Maybe he can explain."_

_I pointed to Sheen, and Libby's jaw dropped in amazement. He walked over and got down on one knee._

"_Libby I've loved you since we were little, and I don't want to spend another minute not knowing that you're going to be mine forever. I love you! I love you more than Carl loves llamas, and Jimmy's mom. I love you more than… than… than Ultra Lord himself. Liberty Danielle Folfax will you marry me?"_

_Libby was crying._

"_Yes!" she breathed. "Yes forever and ever"_

* * *

I smiled remembering what happened just less than a week before. Libby and Sheen were going to be so happy. I sighed and placed my head in my hands.

'If only' I thought.

Suddenly the windows shattered and the room filled with smoke. Someone grabbed me from behind. I screamed more in shock than in fright, and started struggling. For all those years of Karate lessons, they sure didn't help me in this case. The person grabbed me at just the right angle to where I couldn't defend myself. I felt a needle being shoved into my arm, and I knew no more.

* * *

I awoke in a white room. That's the only way that I could think of describing it. The walls and high ceiling were perfectly white. The door was metal, painted white to match the room. It even smelled as though the cell had been freshly painted. A high panel that looked as though it could be moved back to reveal another window covered the upper part of one wall. There was a window opposite the door that was blocked with white bars and looked out onto a pitch black backdrop.

The room was sparsely decorated. The bed I was lying on and a medical table being the only furniture in there with me. Both of which were bolted down to the floor with industrial strength bolts and welded in place. There was no color in the room.

My head was still foggy so I tried to stand to shake it off. My arms and legs were as heavy as cement blocks but I stood anyway. I didn't know how long I had been out. It could have been days; it could have been hours, but what I did know is that I had to clear whatever drugs were in my system still. So I began to pace the room. I scanned the room again and was startled to see a flash of green. I realized that it was my own eyes staring back at me

"Who would kidnap me and more importantly, why?" I said thinking out loud.

"Why my dear Cynthia" a disembodied voice said, "That's for your Jimmy to decrypt."

I knew instantly who it was. Only one other person besides my mother called me Cynthia. I loathed being called it.

"It's Cindy," I growled crouching into attack position scanning the room for the source of the voice. "You know that. You always have. Strytch"

"Very good. It seems that you're not as feebleminded as you look," he said as the door whooshed back revealing him standing in his gruesome glory.

I had been right when it came to the panel, because it too opened up to expose his sidekick and manservant, Blix. I guess watching enough Espionage and Sci-fi movies had paid off a little.

"What do you want with me?" I demanded, ignoring the jibe at my intelligence. "I'm not helping you anymore. I learned my lesson the second time you tricked me! Jimmy's my friend and I'm not helping!!!"

"Come come now Cynthia. Do you think I don't know that? It doesn't matter whether or not you acquiesce this time. Not when 3.5 million dollars and my livelihood hang in the balance."

"Huh? What does money have to do with anything?"

"Well my dear girl, it was in recent news that my father, lacking in both mental clarity and foresight, died, sadly and tragically to cancer, as the paper put it. What boobs! Of course he had cancer, but no one suspected his poor grieving son of poisoning him. That imbecile was growing suspicious of certain off shore accounts that were being inflated from my money laundering from the small corporations that I had started all over the county. So of course I had to get rid of him and his accountant before they could alert the proper authorities about these transactions. The accountant met his tragic end in an airplane crash off the Gulf of Mexico. Engine failure it seems."

I gasped in shock.

"Oh yes, and you see my darling I certainly couldn't just exterminate my father. No that would make the police suspicious of my activities and since my off shore accounts might have already been under suspicion, the next train of thought would be how to off him in a natural manner. The cancer was like an answer to my malicious prayers. I never did like the man anyway. Not after that frightfully horrid introduction to your little rabble of comrades. The cancer was a time-consuming wait of course, but I think the arsenic I laced into his meals helped speed things along."

"You killed your own father?!" I cried in disgust.

"Of course I did you naïve little girl." He said walking around me in circles. "You probably would too if there were 3.5 million dollars at stake for it. Unfortunately Father had not updated his will since my last altercation with your beau. Since I was unable to stay out of mindless quarrels and displacing my hostility towards your James, he thought that I would be incapable of handling the family money. So he put a clause into the will. I had to leave your squeeze alone for at least 5 years. To my surprise, that was easier said and done. You see instead that gave me time to think about how I would finally extract my revenge against him."

"So once again you think that I'm going to help you with this. As if Eustace! You have nothing to offer me that would make me hurt Jimmy!"

He stopped his pacing and looked me in the eyes. Not for the first time I could see a glint of pure madness in him.

"Oh but my dear girl, I did in that time of reflection realize that it was just not your beloved James that foiled all of my great schemes. No, don't think I haven't forgotten the incident on Mars, or the time I attached myself to that useless 'League of Villains.' There was always someone there to help him, a certain blonde haired vainglorious young woman. Oh what was her name??? Yes that's right… it was you." He said punching me in the face.

I clearly wasn't prepared for it, but who would be? Eustace Strytch actually harming another person, himself? In all my memory of every encounter we had with him, he had always had his lackeys do everything for him. Obviously in the time that he had retreated into solitude to plot, he had gone crazy, or crazier I should say. His punch packed a great deal of strength behind it as well. I knew that I was going to have a black eye, a really black eye at that.

I stumbled back, but prepared myself for anything that he might throw at me. I still wasn't prepared when he lashed out with his foot.

"You see, I've been studying 8 different types of martial arts since our last altercation."

"Damn it!" I shouted taking a swing at him. Unfortunately I missed and he got me in the stomach with his fist. I doubled over in pain.

"Ah ah ah! Such foul words for such a beautiful face," he said lifting my face up and slapping it.

I knew this was the direct result of the drugs. It had to be. I was still studying tae kwon do. Nothing else made sense as to why I was reacting so slowly. He again punched me in the face, and I fell backwards to the ground. My feet flew out from under me, but I managed to get in one kick swiftly into his…. well you know.

Struggling to my knees I asked, "What are you going to do to me?!"

"Well first off I'm going to make sure that you can't try to escape" he said pulling out two pair of handcuffs.

He dragged me back to the bed by my hair and cuffed me to the bed.

"Then I'm going to make your dear James squirm a bit more before I let him know my demands," he said punching me squarely into the eye he had punched before.

The pain was so intense that I passed out for a second time, but not before I saw Blix walk in with a syringe in his hand.

* * *

"Say hello to your precious Jimmy, my dear"

"Jim… Ji… Jimmy??" I mumbled my thought process to scattered by the beating and the drugs.

There stood Eustace with a camera, his face blacked out with a mask, voice changed by some sort of toy that they sold in at the toy store in downtown Retroville. I know because I bought one for my little brother two weeks before that for Christmas.

"Yes there's a good girl tell him hello for me,"

"Jimmy! It's… its Eu…. Eu… its Eu."

"Ah ah ah. I can't have you exposing me just yet. I'm not through with you," he said as a built man walked toward me with yet another needle, probably filled with some sort of anesthetic.

"Eu… Eu… stop….. Jimmy…. Help…. It's" I struggled to get out before once again passing out

"Cynthia really, did you think that I was going to let you spoil my fun by telling Jimmy who I was? I think not," he stroked my face tenderly as if to some how make this all better.

"Jimmy will find me," I said defiantly.

"Oh I expect him to, but not before I've had a chance to get my money,"

"What are you talking about? You left us alone for more than five years the money should be yours,"

"There's one little hitch that my father left me though. You see as an added responsibility to my daddy's will, I had to become a matured adult. To him that meant fatherhood of course."

"What!?!" I gasped, scared at the possibility that he was implicating to me.

"Don't agonize over this. I have a team of crack, or should I say cracked, scientists who are going to help me with this. They'll implant my test-tube child into your womb. Once your nine months are up, well then you can worry. Because I won't need you anymore."

* * *

**A.N. **Ok so now you know the villain! If you didn't get it right, you should go back and read all the hints I left you. The biggest one being in the title of the story itself. To quote Eustace in King of Mars, "You won't escape, Neutron. My undying hatred shall pursue you without rest! But first I think I'll slip into unconsciousness." 


	6. It's You

Disclaimer: Didn't get it for Christmas, so I still don't own it.

A.N.

1. I am not a physicist, so I apologize for any mistakes I make on that. Also remember that it's a cartoon so things aren't always right anyway.

2. Keep in mind that though we and Cindy know who the villain really is, Jimmy and the rest of the gang don't.

3. This is right after they watch the DVD delivered to Jimmy's doorstep.

* * *

Jimmy's POV

I stared at the television in complete shock as the scene faded to black on her limp and lifeless form. What that villain did to her was completely repulsive. From the black eye visible on her face to the cuts and lacerations that laced her body and dress; all of it filled me with a rage that there was no point in beginning to describe. I began to shake.

Finally I pulled eyes away from the television to scan the room, silent as if there was no one there. Libby silently sobbed into Sheen's chest as he wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. I hadn't realized how close the five of us had become growing up until now as tears streamed down Carl's face as well.

Libby continued to sobbing as the clock rang the two o'clock hour. Rage had consumed me. He was going to pay for what he did to hurt her so badly, and for the things he would do.

The silence carried on. Libby finally cried herself to sleep in Sheen's arms.

"That monster!" Sheen exclaimed in a shocked whisper.

"How could someone do something so… so…. so evil?" Carl asked.

Still I remained silent stewing in my anger and hatred.

"Jim?" Carl said his voice tenuous.

"I'm fine Carl. I'm just thinking," I said my voice deadly serious.

A thought was looming in the distance like the ultimate brain blast. If he was as smart as I thought he was, he would have done to this new DVD what he had done to the first Cd and encrypted another virus, so I wasn't about to put it into my computer.

"It's you"

Her words rang over and over again in my mind. She was trying to tell me who it was. It's you. It had to be my evil clone. There was no other choice. If she thought it was me, it had to be Evil Jimmy. He escaped, kidnapped her, and possibly took her back to his evil dimension, where he was probably subjecting her to the cruelest inventions that his sadistic mind could think of, and seeing as how we shared mental capacities, those inventions could reach the hundreds as they had with my own inventions. Mine of course were meant to help mankind, but there was no telling what he could think up.

Now all I had to do was hunt him down.

_

* * *

Some weeks later._

School was finally out for Christmas break. The semester was over. How I passed my classes had to be further proof of my genius. I spent every waking hour obsessing over this thing with Cindy. I had to find her. Academically I was running on nothing. I wasn't trying. I hadn't paid attention in class since November. Somehow my big brain, as Cindy had put it in so long ago, had absorbed the knowledge, or maybe it had all been there to begin with.

I brought all of my equipment home with me for the month long Christmas break, so that I could keep working. I spent all of my time in the lab working on building a machine that would be able to stand up to the rigors of inter-dimensional travel like the one I knew I would need, to make it back with Cindy. It was one thing to travel over to someplace like Dimmsdale, but it was another more astonishing feat for someone to make it back from a Dark Matter dimension.

No one had ever done it. Not that many had tried really. It was rumored that only three other people had tried it in all of history.

I hadn't heard from the kidnapper since the night we got the DVD, and it had been over a month since her kidnapping, but something told me that she was still alive. I could feel it in my bones; that somewhere out there she was waiting for me to come rescue her before it was too late.

Soda cans littered the floor that I paced trying to think of something that could work as a temporal disruptor that would withstand the pressure that the dark matter would exude on it, but again nothing came to mind. The whole of the clubhouse was a filthy mess due to my tenacity. I had enlarged it over the years to accommodate my growing stature and growing collection of working inventions, so needless to say the mess was large as well.

I ran my hand through my oily hair.

'When was the last time I showered?' I thought to myself.

I knew I hadn't slept in a day and a half. I had stopped shaving as well, and a beard had grown in. I was so consumed with finding Cindy that I hadn't even called Carl and Sheen or Libby to tell them that I was back in town.

There was a knock at the door of my clubhouse, and as I looked at the screen to answer it, it swung open. I had deactivated the security systems for Sheen and Carl long ago for the main part of the lab, knowing there was nothing that they could blow up or start a fire with lying in the vicinity.

"See I told you he'd be here," Sheen said.

"Yeah but you didn't mention that he'd smell so bad," Libby said holding her nose.

I gave a small chuckle, the first in a while.

"Sorry, I've had my mind in other places."

"It's ok Jimmy. We came to get you out of the lab. We know you've been here for a while. You need to rest your mind a bit. You've been working hard." Libby said pointing to the transporter that I had lying in pieces in the main work room.

"I have to find her. I have to tell her that I love her. If something happens to her, I won't be able to live anymore."

"Even geniuses need a break Jimmy. You've gotten more done in two weeks time than anyone has in centuries. Go take a shower and come to dinner with us. It's not going to help Cindy if you die of exhaustion working on a way to find her."

"Fine." I said conceding to her point. I couldn't do my best thinking on an empty stomach and while I was half dead with fatigue.

I walked to the bathroom where I had installed a shower in the living quarters of the lab, grabbing a towel on the way.

Twenty minutes later I walked out of the bathroom showered and changed into fresh clothes, though I had left the beard. Sheen and Libby had cleared a spot and were waiting on the couch, talking softly.

"You ready to go?" Sheen asked.

I nodded and let them lead the way. The three of us piled into Libby's little car. Sheen's car was in the shop again, he explained with a shrug, and we wouldn't all fit on his motorcycle. He had messed up his breaks again in his third car accident of the year. With his need for speed, it was a shock that his insurance company still covered him. It was a good thing that his father had taught him all of his repairman skills. Sheen could probably open up his own auto repair shop with as many times as he had to fix up his own cars.

We ate at some restaurant, not that I really cared and Sheen paid the bill.

As we walked back out to the car Libby grabbed my hand.

"You'll find her Jimmy; you'll find her and bring her back for my wedding. I'm not getting married until she's back with us"

I gave Libby a weak smile and said, "I'm trying Lib, I really am. I just wish I had never taken that darn tracking device off of her"

"Oh?" she said with one eyebrow raised. "What tracking device?"

"The one I put on her when we got into junior high so that way I could avoid her" I replied not even trying to defend myself. "I know it was lame, but sometimes it helped when she was in a bad mood to avoid her. I gave it to her on the hair tie I got her for her birthday. It's how I found her that first night of the summer her parents got divorced. After that though, I deactivated it. I didn't really need it then. The ponytail is still in her room here in Retroville or I would be able to track where she was."

"Oh"

As we drove to my house, I couldn't help but feel more and more dejected. It had been over a month.

'I should have found her by now.' I thought. Putting my head in my hands, I stared at the floor

"Jim, you sure you don't want to come watch a movie with me and Carl? We rented a Sci-Fi flick. We know that you love taking them apart."

"No thanks Sheen, maybe some other time. Plus I'd just fall asleep anyway." I said glumly, not even bothering to look up at him.

When we got to the door I knew there was something wrong. The front door was open, and all the lights were on. There were police cars surrounding the house. My mom came running to the car.

"Mom!" I cried.

"Oh Jimmy! There was a man here. He broke open the door and ransacked the whole living room. He left this too," my mom said, secretly handing me an envelope as she hugged me.

"I didn't tell the police about it because I wanted you to have the first look at it. He said it had to do with Cindy, 'your precious Cynthia's' the phrase he used. I know you've been working on finding her, and well, you know how the police are here," she said whispering.

I dashed into the backyard and into the lab, Sheen and Libby trailing me. Ripping open envelope a letter fell out of it and onto the table.

It read:

Nine months from today,

She dies.

Better hurry up and find me.


	7. Neutronium

Disclaimer: If I owned it, it would have never ended.

I also don't own any rights to any song ever… though I wish I did!

A.N. Sorry it's taken me so long to update… I get ADD-ish like Sheen and I haven't felt like writing ANYTHING until now.

* * *

Jimmy's POV

Nine months from today,

She dies.

Better hurry up and find me.

"No!" I screamed, voice cracking and falling to my knees. "No! No! No! No! This, this can't be happening."

Libby lay sprawled on the ground in dead faint. Sheen propped her up laying her head in his lap. Thick tears fell down his face, my face. It was like she had been kidnapped all over again.

_I don't understand. Why the deadline? Why now? Why nine months?_

Libby awoke, only to faint again upon realizing why she had fainted in the first place.

Something inside me, kindred to rage bubbled up inside me. It burned my insides, giving the world a red gleam, until I could bear it no longer. The sound broke the silence like waves breaking upon a rocky shore during a hurricane or some other turbulent storm. An unadulterated wail filled with all my pent up fury and sorrow rose from my lips.

"J-J-Jimmy?" Sheen stuttered.

"Enough" I growled.

I stomped back to the machine that had taken me so long to construct. Suddenly I knew what had to be done; knew what I needed to use as the temporal disruptor.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_Two days later._

That night, that letter, kicked me back into gear, like a brain blast on steroids. Inside something had snapped and all the answers had flooded to my brain in a tempest's gale. It's not like I hadn't been working, but somehow having a deadline made it all that more serious and important that we find her.

"I am such an idiot!" I exclaimed slamming the door to the lab. "I should have known that this would be what I would need!"

"What's that Jimmy?" Carl asked tentatively.

Since my outburst two days previous, Carl and Sheen were hesitant to ask many questions. My short terse answers hadn't helped much either. Libby had recovered from her fainting spells and had dropped everything to devote to helping me in anyway she could.

"The battery I installed in Cindy's tracking hair band, it was powered with a Neutronium battery. It's just what I need to power the temporal disruptor. I should have realized it sooner."

"No one blames you for not thinking of it sooner Jim," Carl said reassuringly.

"There's a problem though," I said sighing in frustration.

"What?" Sheen asked

"I used last my of my Neutronium to make the battery and another supply would take at least a year and a half to get my hands on. "

"Then use the one you put in Cindy's gift"

"I can't! The hair band's at Cindy's house and her mom won't let anyone in, especially not me. By her estimation it's my fault that Cindy went missing in the first place," I declared placing my head in my hands and pulling on my hair.

"She won't let me in the door either," Libby said coming around the corner of my desk to rub her hand on my back. "And I'm her best friend."

"You know what this means?" Carl whispered to Sheen.

"Al-l-l-lright! Let me get my cat burglar costume and we'll have it out of there in a faster than you can say 'Save Cindy from Jimmy's Evil Clone!" Sheen exclaimed.

He dashed through the door to the bathroom and slammed it behind him.

I could hear Carl next to me, voice still low, "Save Cindy from Jimmy's Evil Clone. Save Cindy from Jimmy's Evil Clone. Save Cindy from Jimmy's Evil Clone. Save Cindy from Jimmy's Evil Clone."

After the thirtieth repetition of Carl's new mantra we heard a chagrinned voice coming from the bathroom. The door opened slowly revealing Sheen head and left arm sticking out the neck hole of the sweater.

"Uh guys could you come help me? I seem to have gotten stuck," he told us with a red face.

Libby bit back a laugh and walked over to him.

* * *

20 minutes later

"Ok Sheen, Libby's in place at the door. Just wait until you hear the doorbell," I rolled my eyes at this convoluted plan.

Sheen had scaled the side of the Vortex's house to Cindy's window. Now he was just waiting for Libby to distract Mrs. Vortex. Hopefully her play for time would work and Sheen would be able to get the scrunchie from Cindy's room. I had reactivated the homing device in the hopes that it wouldn't be buried somewhere in boxes.

"Libby we're a go," I spoke into the microphone.

_I wish I could have done more, _I thought.

Forced to sit back, knowing that Cindy's mom would just slam the door in my face if I dared approach the house, I manned the video camera attached to Libby's broach. Rudimentary espionage yes, but the only unobtrusive way that we were going to a visual on the situation.

"Chillax Jimmy it's not like I haven't done this before," Sheen assured me.

"Sheen you haven't done this before."

"Oh!" he replied.

Libby rang the doorbell, silencing whatever comment I had thought of. Mrs. Vortex answered the door. Dressed in slippers and a housecoat, she looked nothing like the strong vibrant woman I remembered pushing her daughter to perfection. She seemed haggard, aged by my approximation 15 if not 20 years. Her bearing was that of a woman having faced defeat and lost woefully.

"Um hi" Libby said bashfully.

"What do you want Liberty?" Cindy's mom sneered.

She was the only person besides Libby's own mother allowed to call her by her full name.

"I was wondering if… you… had… you know heard anything… new in the search for Cindy?"

"No!" she exclaimed starting to slam the door in Libby's face.

"Libby quick! You need to stall her. Sheen hasn't made it in the window yet." I hurriedly related.

"Wait! I just thought that you know with the break in at the Neutron's the police would have had more to work with."

That did it. She just had to mention my name to Mrs. Vortex. She launched into an explosive tirade. I hadn't heard that many expletives since the last time that Nick Dean had broken his leg in a skateboarding accident.

"Thanks" I grumbled.

I sighed. Cindy sounded just like her mother when she was yelling at me.

Checking in with Sheen I realized he had found the crystal-encrusted scrunchie. I had tried to make the hair tie something that she would love and wear everyday. It was her favorite color, but I had also adapted it to match any outfit she chose. Crystals glittered all over it. Hidden in one of the crystals was the tracking device, powered by a Neutronium battery so that it wouldn't die for at least a hundred years. I knew he wouldn't have a hard time finding it; after all it was sparkly. Any object that had a glimmer of an animation would attract his eye.

"Libby, get out of there. He's got it!"

She muttered a hasty apology, backtracking immediately. Cindy's mom didn't notice much, only pausing to take a breath and augmenting her voice to yell louder at Libby's retreating form.

We reassembled back at the clubhouse. Grim satisfaction flowed through me. We were so close. One step down, who knew how many more to go to save the girl I loved more than science.

"As soon as I assemble all of my gear in the hypercube I can set off to rescue her and destroy that no good disgusting excuse of a clone of mine"

"How long until _we're_ ready to go?" Libby asked with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. The stress on _we_ was plainly obvious that I wasn't going to convince them to let me go alone.

"Tomorrow"


	8. Unexpected Help

Disclaimer: If I owned it, every episode would be available on a DVD box set, but sadly I don't, so it's not.

A.N. I also apologize for my grammatical mistakes… I'm trying, but am really more concerned that the characters stay consistent with their personalities rather than the nuts and bolts of the story.

Also I usually have a friend edit it, but the last chapter I wanted to be a surprise for her.

A.N. #2 The italics are either times or flashbacks depending on the context. I think you guys should be able to figure out which is which.

* * *

Cindy's POV

_Several days after Jimmy and crew break into Cindy's house._

"No!" I screamed thrusting myself painfully back into consciousness.

"No! NO! NO!!! NO!!! Help me someone!!! Plea-he-he-he-se" I sobbed for maybe the hundredth time that day.

In the beginning, I had lost track of the days. I had been so drugged up on whatever combination of sedatives the goons had given me. By my best recollection it had to have been at least two months since I had been put in this prison, shackled to the bed.

They had since taken me off the pharmaceuticals.

It wasn't until another kind of lackey came into the room in a white coat that I realized why. I wish I had never woken up. To describe the procedure that followed his entrance as the most excruciatingly painful and psychologically traumatic experience of my life was an understatement.

"_Well miss," he said with an ironic sort of smile on his lips, "it seems that congratulations are in order. You're pregnant"_

That's when I had started screaming in earnest again. My throat was raw from the anguished screaming and wailing. Even when my crying had subsided into the near silent whimpering that usually meant I was trying to avoid the comfortlessness of reality, it ached worse than the rest of me.

My wrists as well would never be the same from my struggling against the bonds that held me to the bed.

I was only allowed to get up twice a day, always under heavy guard. The guard was to make sure that I couldn't hurt the baby or so I was told. The doctors had me in a very regimented schedule.

Thirty minutes was spent doing various mental tasks they had for me. Each day they took me to a room just as plain and somber as the one that I was held in. There they made me take cognitive tests. IQ tests, critical thinking exercises, and always the same cd compilation of the greatest works of Mozart, the latter drove me crazy.

They allotted me an hour to workout so that I wouldn't get bedsores and to stay fit enough to carry the baby to full term. I was always chained to at least two of the oversized under-brained gorillas that Eustace employed. I was also only allowed to walk on a treadmill at a snail's pace that did nothing to build back up my fighting skills.

The last twenty minutes of each day was reserved for a shower to keep me clean. Still bound to the goons I was forced, like the concentration camp prisoners of World War 2, into the showers. The shower was almost as bad as the initial examination.

Every time I complained they told me that it was good for the health of the baby.

"What's good for the mother is good for the baby," I was told over and over again. This point was driven home by the beatings they gave me. All of them were under direct supervision of doctors to make sure that the thugs stuck to their decree of staying away from my abdomen.

It had become an almost daily routine. It seemed that they were so starved for violence that Eustace's henchmen looked for every excuse to inflict more pain on me, not that they really needed to.

I always fought my bonds trying in vain to break free and rescue myself. Each day became a cycle of emotions for me. I had never been weak, never would be weak. I was still a Vortex. No scumbag, no matter how evil and creepy was going to break my will.

I was thinking, always thinking. I kept thinking there would be something that would present itself to me as a means for my escape.

I had tried everything that I could think of. Once I had feigned morning sickness so badly that they had to release my chains to let me run to the bathroom. Unfortunately one of the morons was smart enough to carry me to the bathroom still cuffed to the bed. That was the day that I learned that my bed had wheels on it. From there the plans got more elaborate and desperate.

* * *

Another time Eustace came in during one of my "training" session to check up on his "little darling" as he put it. Just hearing those words out his mouth made me ill. It gave me an idea that almost worked.

"_I-I need to lie down," I said, pretending to swoon._

_True, the floor was a tactical nightmare, but I had to take what I could get. _

_The two doctors rushed to my side shoving the musclemen away from me. Out of their element my guards moved back to the walls of the room. The doctors took my pulse, checked my vitals, and opened my eyes and shined that stupid light pen into them. Because they thought I was unconscious, Eustace gave them permission to un-cuff me to take me to the exam room._

'_Thank you, Mom for all those acting classes when I was young,' I thought._

"_What's wrong?" Eustace asked a touch of fear in his voice._

"_She seems to have fainted, sir" one of the young doctors stated._

"_Will that affect the baby?" he asked._

"_No sir."_

_They hadn't picked me up yet. Eustace hadn't given his approval for anyone to touch me. I had overheard the guards the day before talking about how they weren't allowed to do anything without express permission from him. My wardens weren't a talkative bunch but this must have really annoyed these two. Obviously he was paranoid this would eventually leak to the press and his inheritance would be lost to him forever. I don't think he gave thought to the fact that he would go to prison for life for this._

_As Eustace bent near me to get a better look, I lashed out with my legs. My leg swiftly connected with his groin and he fell to the floor. Jumping to my feet I rapidly broke both the noses of the doctors. _

_Unfortunately Blix was standing on the other side of the door, tranquilizer in hand._

'_Crap' I thought to myself as I fell back into unconsciousness._

I received my most severe beating for that one.

* * *

When I wasn't fighting tears, or fighting to break free, I was thinking of Jimmy. I still held out hope that he was going to come save me. I knew he would pursue my clue with unceasing passion. His drive to solve something was like a dog at a bone.

I spent the time before falling to sleep remembering the good times.

The time we were on Mars was one of the best, especially because it had been the first time he had admitted to actually appreciating me.

"_You are so clueless, Vortex! Of course I know you exist! That's why I pretend to ignore you!" Jimmy had shouted at me._

_Carl gasped in the background, "Oooh!"_

"_Pretend? You mean you've been acting like a complete dweeb because…" I said trailing off to leave him the opportunity to fill it in._

_Carl jumped in first, "He likes you!"_

"_He thinks you fine," Libby added_

"_I do not!" Jimmy hastily amended. "I just think you're pretty smart and you smell nice...and you kinda distract me...sometimes."_

Or the time we did the kids news and Libby out-ed us.

_What's up, y'all? This is Libby with 'Da Word'! Well, it seems a certain bigheaded genius has been playing footsy in the library with a blonde colleague. Looks like this love-hate relationship is turning into ALL love ALL the time. _

There were also those other times we hung out in his lab during high school.

_They were fighting again. It was always when they thought I was asleep, gone to bed for the night, when they didn't have to worry about it traumatizing me._

'_Too late for that,' I thought to myself with a sarcastic grin._

"_I have to get out of here, Lexie, before I go crazy" I said petting my cat that was asleep on my purple and black ottoman._

_I stood and went to the closet, yanking it open as hard as I could. Thank goodness they're made to open without a sound. I appreciated the effort Dad had made redecorating my room when he had lost his job. I pulled out my favorite sweater, the one that always seemed to smell fresh out of the dryer. _

_I quickly threw my hair into a ponytail with my favorite scrunchie; the one I knew had a tracking device in it. Jimmy had thought that he was being sneaky a couple years back by hiding it in the gorgeous glittery ponytail holder, but I had seen past it. I mean even Carl or Sheen would have seen the obvious tracer mixed in with all the shiny gems. Of course Sheen may not have seen past the sparkles._

_I pulled up the window and climbed out onto the trellis. I trudged to the lab, knowing he'd be awake. He was always awake and waiting for me. It was kind of sad how our parents had stopped monitoring us as we had grown. Jimmy and I hung out almost every night and neither Mr. and Mrs. Neutron nor my parents would have ever caught on._

"_Whatcha workin' on tonight Jim?" I asked. I knew he had seen me on the monitors so I never surprised him._

"_Nothing that can't wait another night," he said moving away from his computer. _

_We both plopped down onto the couch in his lab. I sighed._

"_How bad is it tonight?"_

"_Nothing worse than the usual" I wrinkled my nose in disgust at the thought that the extremity of my parents fighting was nothing more than 'usual.' Words as well as small objects usually flew during this type of fighting._

"_Let's watch a movie," he suggested. "What are you in the mood for?"_

"_How about a Sci-Fi?" I asked wagging my eyebrows at him. I knew that he loved taking apart the faulty science in them as much as I did._

"_I know just the one."_

_What I hadn't known at the time was that the project that he was working on was a special gift for me._

Reflecting back on all the times that he had saved us, the town, me, I knew he would come find me. He had to, but I still had to do as much as I could to help myself in the process. From past experience, even all of our best-laid plans had some sort of hiccup that arose during execution.

"Help!" I cried again. "Help me someone!!! Please!"

"D-d-don't worry my dear," said a voice from behind the metal panel. "I've been listening for quite some time and have been working on a plan to- to- um- ah- what was I saying blast it all!"

"Save us?" I asked timidly.


	9. Man in the Mirror

Disclaimer: I wished on the first star of morning, a shooting star, and at 11:11 for it to be mine, but sadly none of my wishes came true.

A.N. Thanks for all the comments! I'm glad you all like it. Yes Eustace is that insane… he's had too much power in his life. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Honestly I wish that his dad had died leaving him nothing!

A.N. #2 Also, again the italics are either times or flashbacks depending on the context.

* * *

Jimmy's POV

_The day after the gang breaks into Cindy's house._

'This was it,' I thought. 'We'll find her today!'

My every nerve was on edge. I paced the lab. I had been up since dawn. Most days I was up then anyway.

Since Cindy's kidnapping my once pleasant dreams of science and Cindy had transformed into grisly nightmares. In every one she laid before me battered and bruise, horribly disfigured. I would watch, as a man in a bloody lab coat would torture her. As I approached the man would become more and more familiar until I finally try to grab his shoulder and wrench him around. Each time I would realize too late that I was looking in a mirror; that it was I tormenting her. Each night I awoke in a cold sweat more exhausted than I had been when I originally went to bad and afraid to go back to sleep.

I had spent the morning preparing for the journey into the Dark Matter dimension.

On principal I didn't have any weapons. There were more mature fashions to deal with my evil counterpart. I had never created an invention to intentionally harm someone. It didn't sit well with me. Life was to be preserved and enhanced through science, not destroyed.

This message I would deliver with my fists. Cindy had passed on a snippet of her knowledge of the martial arts to me during our nights together. I also wanted the chance to think of more inventive ways to make him pay for what he had done. In truth, I wanted to replicate every bruise, every cut, every hurt he had inflicted on her, on his body.

Everything was packed and ready to go in my hypercube. All I needed were my friends. Libby, Sheen, and Carl had yet to arrive and it was aggravating me.

I so desperately wanted to just go, but I knew that I would receive seven kinds of hell for leaving without Libby. Sheen would give me a hard time too, just because he would agree with anything that Libby said.

Carl was the wild card.

_He had told me after the first note, "She's like the sister I always wanted. Don't tell anyone Jim, but I used to pretend that we were brother and sister separated at birth."_

Launching myself back into the future I began pacing again.

"Where are they?!" I exclaimed in frustration.

"Chillax, Jim," Sheen said walking nonchalantly into the room, "You said 6, it's 6. We're on time"

"Actually it's 6:01 Sheen! We should have left a minute ago. That's another minute Cindy's suffering at the hands of my diabolical duplicate!"

All three jaws dropped simultaneously.

"We know how important this is Jimmy," Libby snapped.

She practically took my head off throwing her duffle bag at me. It didn't help that she wasn't a morning person either.

"We're taking my newest Hover-car,"

I indicated with my head as I stuffed their bags into the hypercube. Though my calculations predicted it would take us less than 12 hours to reach the other side of the Dark Matter dimension wormhole I told everyone to pack for at least a week in rugged terrain. It seemed that even our shortest of adventures had sometimes gone awry. Ok to be honest they all went awry some how, but this time nothing was going to go wrong.

"Wow! Jimmy this is really nice," Carl said stroking the leather interior.

"Oh and look there's even a bed!" Sheen exclaimed.

"That's for…" I trailed off. I couldn't finish the sentence, not wanting to think of Cindy that way. She was always so strong and vivacious. I didn't want to attempt to contemplate her any other way.

"Let's just go, Jim," Libby said.

I quickly acquiesced. I had scrapped pieces of my first Chronoarch and converted the machine into my new Temporal Disruptor. The Neutronium from Cindy's hair tie should work perfectly. It had in all the simulations I had run on VOX. I had rebooted her from the copy I had taken to school.

I turned on the Temporal Disruptor. The event horizon glowed an eerie eddy of sinister hues.

"This should be good for only two trips," I declared. "There's only enough power in the Neutronium to successfully transport us to and from the dark matter dimension, as long as we're not there too long."

"How long is too long?" Carl inquired.

"I don't know Carl and honestly I don't care. We're saving her TODAY! Batteries to power..."

"Ooh! Wait, Jimmy! I wanna say it! I wanna say it!" Carl called out.

"Carl!" my exasperated groan was echoed by Libby.

"But you let Sheen say it that one time we went to save Brobot's parents and met the Junkman"

"We took the rocket for that one!"

"But… But… Please?" he begged.

"Go ahead. Fine!"

"Batteries to power."

I flipped the on switch to start the Hover-car.

"Turbines to speed."

The Hover-car had no turbines, but what was the point of telling Carl that. It would only delay our departure further.

"Let's go save Cindy!"

The Hover-car shot off towards the portal.

* * *

The past few months had been a gale of emotional pain. I had all felt as though my heart had been torn into infinitesimally smaller and smaller pieces with a dull spoon with each note and set back in the preparations to save Cindy. Sometimes I felt that I should be in physical anguish as well. Maybe then I would have some relief from this nightmare. Of course I blamed myself. I was sure that Cindy would too.

It seemed as though my masochistic prayers would be answered. The trip through the time and space was excruciating. I felt like my entire being was put into a molecular blender, turned onto frappe, agonizingly reassembled, and frapped again. Every inch of my body burned. It seemed to last forever.

'So this is what it feels like to die' I thought to myself. 'I guess I deserved it.'

Then as horrendously as it started, it stopped. We were there, Evil Retroville.

* * *


	10. A Father's Story

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the computer that I write this on.

A.N. I know that you all really want to find out what happens with Jimmy in E.R. but this chapter begged me to be written and put up first. Oh and I meant for there to be more in this chapter, but it was already much longer than I had originally anticipated.

* * *

Cindy's POV

"Calamitous?" I asked timidly.

"You have deduced well my dear girl."

'What the heck was going on here?' I thought.

How in the world could two of Jimmy's most devious villains be residing in the same place, why in the world would Professor Calamitous want to help me, and why would he be saving "us"?

The door to my cell opened, and in walked the stout little man. He was dressed as the other doctors that had attended me were, a starched white coat.

"How…" I started to say.

"Quiet my dear, we don't have much… uh… um… ah… what was the word?" he stuttered.

"Sound-proofing?"

"No that's not it."

"Time?"

"Yes! Time! That's it, and we're quite short of it indeed," he exclaimed. "Come we only have a few minutes before Strytch notices I'm gone and starts to look for me. When he sees that I've anesthetized his guards it's very likely that he'll… um… ah… ehh…."

"Be pissed? Lock down the building? Fly into a murderous rage?" I questioned.

"Most likely all three."

He un-cuffed me from the bed. I dashed to the door and peeked out. Outside the ruffians were slumped over on the floor.

"Qui-qui-quick!" he said.

He grabbed my hand and a shiver ran down. We ran down the corridor.

'This is a trick,' I thought. 'It must be a trick. There's no way this is really happening. Eustace is just trying to trick me.'

"Just hold on a second," I said skidding to a halt.

"No time!"

He dragged me to an enclosed corridor. Pulling something from his pocket, he peered further down the hall. It looked like something Jimmy had invented. He had called it the Life Form Scanner. I don't know how Calamitous got one.

Calamitous walked to a large heating vent and pried it open.

"I-i-i-in," he said rather forcefully.

I crouched down and crawled in. he quickly followed after me.

"I know you must have… um.. ah.. er.."

"Qualms?"

"No."

"Fears?"

"Not that."

"Questions?"

"Yes you must have many questions as to why I'm…"

"What is going on here? Why are you helping me? How did you get here? Why would Strytch be mad if you're gone too?" I blurted out, cutting him off. "Most importantly why should I trust you?"

"I understand. At the end of the day, why should you trust I, Professor Finbarr Calamitous, nemesis to one boy genius James Isaac Neutron, but I assure you, my dear, that is all in the past."

"Why?"

"It started upon our return from the Cretaceous. As you may recall that blasted boy of yours, Jimmy Neu-Neu-Neutron blew his love pheromone at my daughter and that disgusting…"

"Alien? Blob? Junkman?" I prompted.

"Yes Junkman. Unfortunately for my daughter by the time we had returned to the present, you Jimmy's love pheromone had taken permanent effect on her and her filthy counterpart. It seems that the longer it remains in one's system, the less likely a cure can be found."

"Georgia couldn't bear to be parted with him, so he moved his new ship to a permanent orbit around the Earth. I'm sure that you knew that though. The wedding made all the papers. The first alien/human marriage ever. Or maybe it was my capture and arrest at the… uh… um… drat it..."

"Wedding ceremony?"

"No after that."

"The reception?" I supplied.

"Yes! They lived together in relative happiness for quite a while. Alas around their second anniversary my poor Georgia realized that her biological clock was running out and that's when she came to visit me in prison. She begged me to do something that would allow her to carry her doting husband's child."

"Georgia set me free that very night using one of the inventions that I had started to make, but never finished. The Junkman had completed it for her."

"But how could you help her? I don't understand," I asked.

"You see, before you had been born, before my own child had been born, along with all my other studies in the sciences, I had been earning my genetics degree at the leading university at the time, but I didn't get the chance to finish it."

'_Genetics?' I thought._

"I set about re-enrolling at the university under a pseudonym, Luan Cataclysmic*, to restart my genetic research. Unfortunately the university at that time had a budding History major who was doing their thesis on Patron Saints of Ireland and he put two and two together."

"Then what happened?" I asked as he paused. It seemed like he was lost in the past.

"After that I had to do all my genetic experimentation on that bloody Junk-creature's ship. I came so close to bonding their two genetic fingerprints together, but each time I thought I had a viable specimen to implant in my poor daughter, the fetus would inexplicably… ah… err… ehh… umm… A little help with this one, dear."

"Die?" I encouraged.

"That's it!" Calamitous explained. "It would expire. So I finally went back to the drawing boards. I thought maybe if I played around with the basic amino acids of their genetic makeup I would come up with something. I didn't expect to generate the organism that I did."

"It seems that in playing God, I created the 'perfect clone.' The clone would retain 100% of its genetic parent's abilities, and yet be completely docile. Completely malleable for malevolence or groomed for greatness."

"You mean the _thing _inside me is an exact copy of Strytch?" I asked spitting out his name like a curse.

"Not quite, but I will get to that in a minute."

"This experiment was a complete waste as well. My daughter and son-in-law were not looking for a clone, but a child of their own, not a carbon copy of themselves."

"Unfortunately that villainous criminal Strytch had placed a Trojan onto the Junkman's ship when the three of us had made his acquaintance through the failed League of Villains. All of my notes, the logs from failed experiment after experiment, he took them all."

"I still don't understand. Why are you here then? If he had all your notes then why would he need you?" I asked.

"Well it seems that in my haste I… ah... well… I forgot to finish the last of the notes on the perfect clone. I took some online courses to try and fix that, but it hasn't quite stuck."

"One night I returned from a trip to the surface to find the spaceship in shambles and a DVD from Strytch demanding my secret in exchange for my delightful daughter and her corpulent husband."

"What did you do?" I demanded.

"I did the only thing a rational loving father could do. I handed myself over to that dastardly fellow in substitute for Georgia's freedom."

"That young man forced me recreate my experiment, using his DNA and place it in an 'incubator' as he put it. I swear to you dear girl, I had no idea that he would utilize such diabolical means. Each time I resisted he threatened to have the last of my family eradicated."

"The first month, after he revealed your identity to me, I told myself that you were getting what you deserved. After all in many of my failed attempts at extracting my… my…. my…"

"Revenge?"

"Oh yes that's it! Revenge! In many of my failed attempts to extract revenge on Retroville and young James, you had helped him thwart my efforts." he admitted.

"But you see, after listening to your daily toil my heart seemed to soften. Each time I listened, the more you reminded me of my Georgia. She had wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with her family in peace. Most importantly it was for her sake that I had taken the first steps that had gotten myself into this fiasco."

"I knew then that I had to escape and take you with me."

There was a sudden bang on the other end of the heating duct.

"Crap!" I exclaimed.

"Oh dear I think they have discovered our absence," he replied.

* * *

*A.N. About Calamitous' pseudonym, look up just the name Finbarr in Wikipedia… You'll find some interesting things, like the fact that there was a Saint Finbarr. I honestly couldn't have made that up if I tried!

A.N. #2 Also remember in Jet Fusion I believe it is, Calamitous says that he's been working on finishing things, so if his speech seems to long for his character it's really not. Remember this is set in the future. He's had plenty of time to work on his sentences.


	11. What Could Have Been

Disclaimer: I should just admit it… I don't own it, never will either on what I make.

A.N. Just so there is no confusion, this whole chapter is in Jimmy's POV, so he's the I that's talking, and Evil Jimmy's the Jimmy that's talking. I hope that it's not too confusing.

A.N. #2Also to reply to Jediguru: Yes the Junkman and Beautiful Gorgeous is a very creepy and awkward pairing, but that was Nickelodeon, not me that paired them up in League of Villains. I just work with what I'm given.

* * *

Jimmy's POV

The trip through the time and space was excruciating. I felt like my entire being was put into a molecular blender, turned onto frappe, agonizingly reassembled, and frapped again. Every inch of my body burned. It seemed to last forever.

'So this is what it feels like to die' I thought to myself. 'I guess I deserved it.'

Then as horrendously as it started, it stopped. We were there, Evil Retroville.

* * *

The Hover-car crashed into a park similar to the one I had found Cindy crying in during high school in our dimension. The four of us were thrown with tremendous force from the vehicle. The 12 hours of physical anguish, months of psychosomatic stress, and the impact rendered me comatose.

I felt as though I was floating or falling inside the black.

Tranquility flowed through me like a tributary to an extensive sea. Subconsciously I wondered if this was heaven. Some part of me, my shriveled heart perhaps as Cindy had once lovingly put it during one of our rows, knew that had it been heaven, she would have been there with me.

Through the mist that surrounded me I heard a familiar voice.

"Jimmy!!! Jim!"

I wasn't sure I was ready to leave yet. I had been through so much already. What if we got there and it was too late?

"Un-uh boy! You ain't gonna leave us stranded here in an evil parallel universe with no clue how to get home. You betta wake up now! We gotta save Cindy and we can't do it without you!"

Libby's voice broke through the fog clouding my mind.

"Wha-What happened?" I asked.

"You passed out Jimmy," Carl said sympathetically. "Don't worry about it. I do it all the time."

From my view on the ground I could see Sheen exchanging looks with Libby. Both of them rolled their eyes. I slowly sat up. My head hurt, but it was bearable. Sheen and Libby both extended their hands and hauled me to my feet.

That was when I got a good look at them. They seemed older, aged.

"Holy Heisenberg! Why do you look like that?" I gasped.

My friends looked at one another and shared a common gasp as well. I depressed a button on my watch.

Looking at the date I cried, "Stupid! For the love of all that's scientific! That was stupid!"

" What?"

"Since I had to scrap the Chronoarch for parts for the Temporal Disruptor I forgot to reset the time accelerator. We're in the Dark Matter Dimension, alright, but 10 years in the future as well. He could have moved her anywhere by now!"

"What's the plan then?" Sheen asked taking a cliché superman pose.

"We don't know where he's keeping her, but I bet he's still in contact with my evil parents or your evil doppelgangers." I stated. "Let's start there."

The Hover-car had sustained minimal cosmetic damage during impact so we quickly proceeded to my house.

"I can't just walk up to my parent's place and claim that I don't know where I live," I said. "That would look too suspicious. Sheen I know I've asked a lot of you, but do you think you could go ask them. It would make sense if you forgot where I lived."

"Alright…. Hey wait! What do you mean by that?" he asked indignantly.

"Nothing! Just get a move on!"

Sheen started walking to the front door when I remembered something.

"Sheen! Wait! If they ask you anything pertaining to Ultra Lord you have to say you hate him. The Sheen in this world loves Robo-Fiend."

"What!? WHAT?! You want me to what?!" Sheen exploded. "Doth mine ears deceive me? I thought I just heard you say that you need me blasphemy the most sacred thing on the face of the planet. To say that I like Robo-Fiend more than Ultra Lord, my tongue would shrivel up and fall off. I may die just from thinking those words. Oh God! I'm going to die! Libby pinch me I must be having a nightmare!

"I wish," she muttered under her breath.

"Sheen. Look. At. Me," I said slowly. "This is for Cindy, the woman I love, and the best friend of the woman you love. If you can't do this for me, for Cindy, do it for Libby. You told me once you would do anything for her to make her happy. Please Sheen, as your best friend, I am begging you. You have to lie."

"Alright, alright. There's no need to be so dramatic."

He walked up to the door as Carl, Libby, and I quietly hid behind my evil parents' car.

"What do you want?" my mother's ruthless counterpart demanded.

"My Mrs. Neutron you look ghastly today. I was just wondering is your son Jimmy home?"

I slapped my hand to my forehead. To trust Cindy's life with Sheen, I must have been crazy. My evil mother would see through him in a nanosecond and then tell Evil Jimmy.

"You know very well he doesn't live here anymore, you wretched boy. How stupid of you to forget!"

"Yes… um I was wondering where would I be able to find him?"

"Ha! He didn't tell you where he's living now? Must not trust you enough. Bah no matter. I'll tell you where he lives, just so you can bug him all you want."

"… And that would be where?"

"He just moved into the old Vortex place," she told him.

"He would, wouldn't he?" I whispered to Libby and Carl.

'_That roguish dismal-dreaming no good son of a-'_

"Thanks!" Sheen said, much to my evil mom's chagrin.

Joining us at behind the cars, Sheen blanched at the look on my face.

"That's it! I'm done."

I stood and marched across the street. Libby and Carl scrambled to their feet, and the three of them chased after me.

"Ji-Ji-Jimmy what are you going to do?" Carl sputtered.

"I'm going to break down the door and kick the living crap out of him. That's what I'm going to do," I declared. "We know where he is, and I could care less. He's going to tell us where Cindy is and pay for everything that he's done to her."

My fury carried me all the way to the door. I realized when I got there that, knowing my clone, the door was probably reinforced steel.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

I found my fist pounding on the door I had intended to destroy. The door creaked open, evidently not shut properly. I pushed it open, intent on finding that sorry excuse for a scientist.

I had expected a room filled with lab equipment similar to my lab at home, microscopes, chemicals bubbling over a Bunsen burner and maybe a computer or too. I also anticipated the room to be harshly lit and unadorned as the one in the video that Kevorkian-wannabe had sent me.

Instead I was greeted by a comfortably lit entryway. It felt strange, almost homey. Walking into the living room it reminded me more of my real parents living room, minus the duck theme. There were spacious black couches clustered around a flat screen television. It looked like any normal American home.

Silently, Libby, Carl, and Sheen followed me. I had already warned them that the place may have been rigged with booby-traps. Knowing that it would take someone with a superb intellect to escape, they chose to let me go first.

Rounding another corner, I noticed a figure sitting in a reclining chair. The short hair matched my own perfectly and I knew at once that it must have been him.

I deftly signaled Carl and Sheen to reposition themselves on either side of our foe's fiendish form. They were each carrying an improved copy of the butterfly netted hypercube that I had concocted with Turner what seemed a lifetime ago. This one launched a net that would bind so tightly that not even if they could shrink themselves down to this size of an atom could escape.

The nets launched at Evil Jimmy's outline fixing him to his seat. I stormed around to the other side of the chair with the others trailing behind me.

"Hello Lame-wads. What the hell are you doing here, whippy-dip?"

"You know what I'm here for you waste of oxygen! Where is she?" I demanded.

I punched him in the face, letting my anger get the best of me.

"Who?"

"Cindy! I know you have her, now where is she?"

"Evil Cindy, you mean?"

"NO! MY Cindy!" I shrieked. "WHERE. IS. SHE?"

From up the stairs a strange wailing burst forth. Just then the front door opened. In walked a hooded blonde figure.

"Great!" exclaimed a familiar angry female voice. "You woke the baby!"

"Cindy! You're safe… wait did you say baby?"

"Cindy! I'm not Cindy. I'm Evil Cindy, and yes you pathetic dweebs woke Griffin!" she said stomping up the stairs.

"Wait just a Neutronic minute. What is happening here?" I said hitting my forehead in frustration. "Didn't you kidnap Cindy from my dimension and hold her so that you would lure me to my demise?"

"Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, now why would I do something like that?" Evil Jimmy said.

"Because…. Because… You… you swore you would get me in the end…" I stammered hesitantly.

"Honestly whippy-dip, I haven't thought about you in years."

"Huh?"

"I've been too busy with other things. You know, settling down. Raising a family."

"What?!"

"You see, genius boy," he said struggling against his bonds. "After you trapped me here I began to plot my return. Bent on seeking my revenge against you and your ridiculous hairstyle, which I see that you've changed that. My Evil friends tried their best to aid me in my struggle. Evil Carl was especially bent on giving you the beating of your life and Evil Cindy and Evil Libby had other intentions, something about jumper cables."

I laughed nervously and rubbed the back of my neck, remembering my only other encounter with Evil Cindy and Libby.

"The five of us spent more and more time together. It was almost like we cared about each other," he said pretending to retch.

"One summer night after a particularly botched experiment, I stormed out of my lab. I was hell bent on making anyone who came in my way pay for this failure. I was giving up. I had been working for four years there was no way that I was going to be able to make it to your sickly sweet universe. I ranted and raved my way to the local park where I found her. It was weird almost like she was waiting for me."

"Who?" Sheen whispered, entranced by his lies.

"Me," a voice came from behind us. "I just got him back to sleep. Fortunately for you freaks you didn't wake his brother, Cal."

Evil Cindy walked back into the room and started to untie my clone. I was too stunned by her reappearance to move. Just looking at her made an even bigger chasm in my already shattered heart.

"I was waiting for you, you numb-skull," she said stroking his hair. "I was waiting to give you the worst purple nurple of your life."

"When I saw her standing in the moonlight I snapped. I realized I hated no one more in my life than her, not even you, and needed to be able to spend the rest of my life making hers a living nightmare. Then I did what any man would have done in that situation."

"What did you do?" Sheen asked, still awed

"He kissed me!" Evil Cindy.

She had finished untying him. Though he was bonds were undone, Jimmy didn't move from the chair. Cindy sat down on the arm of his chair.

"… And I've never looked back. It was like fate had always known we would be together. Blow for blow, test for test, and science fair for science fair we were evenly matched. No one could compare. Through all the trouble we had, all the battles, I've never been more miserable in my life."

Cindy giggled at that.

"What was it like ten years back we got hitched. Three years ago, we were cursed with our oldest brat Cal and Griffin'll be six months old tomorrow."

"Cal? Griffin?" Libby asked.

"Our sons, Calamitous Edward and Griffin Hyde, named after my favorite fictional evil scientists."

I couldn't believe my ears. Two sons? Even in an evil parallel universe it seemed that Cindy and I were meant to be, and yet…

I couldn't breathe. Gasping for breath, I slunk to the floor. Sobs came freely from my body. It felt like the earth was shaking beneath my feet. Feeling moisture on my cheeks, I realized it was my crying that was making me tremble and not the ground.

The hope that I had been holding on to for so long was ripped from my hands, like a small child with its blankie. There was nothing left for me to do but cry.

I was lost in grief. I had been so sure that we would find her here.

"Sh-she, she's not here… I-i-i-I tried s-s-s-so hard, got so f-f-far," I managed to choke out.

No more words would to mind. There were no words for this. A horrible keening issued forth from my lips.

"I feel sorry for you. You've come to face a ruthless enemy, an inhuman wretch incapable of pity, without any feelings of mercy, and you got this," his blue eyes shimmered with sincerity.

The silence stretched awkwardly. No one could seem to make a sound, save my forceful howling.

When the noise subsided I heard Libby finally ask, "Why are you being so nice?"

"Being a father changes things. Puts things into perspective," he said with a shrug of his shoulders as if that explained things.

"Jimmy," Carl whispered so softly I almost didn't perceive it, "we should probably get back to the Temp-temp-temp- the thing that's going to get us home?"

Nodding, I sniffed and stood to my feet. As I trudged to the door I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey whippy-dip," he said softly, "I hope you find her."

I sighed and turned my back for one last time on what could have been.

* * *

A.N. I know… I'm a horrible person for doing this to Jimmy. I cannot even begin to fathom the pain he must be in…

I should just name this chapter 'In Which the Author Further Torments an Already Tortured Man'


	12. Eventually All Things Come to an End

Disclaimer: They say that the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. *Stands* "Hi my pen name is Okmeamithinknow, and I don't own Jimmy Neutron

A.N. I'm glad that you guys liked the last chapter. I kind of went out on a limb and took the chance that you may not like it. I kind of did the same thing in this chapter. I hope you like this one as well. Hopefully you will.

* * *

_Cindy's POV_

There was a sudden bang on the other end of the heating duct where Calamitous and I had hidden momentarily.

"Crap!" I squeaked.

"Oh dear I think they have discovered our absence," he replied.

"Run!" I screamed.

Calamitous pushed me down the metal tube. It was too short for us really run. We began to crawl on our hands and knees.

"Down there and to the left!" he commanded. "I've been studying the schematics to this particular duct for a while. Three more right turns after that it should lead straight out to the outer complex. The guards out there haven't seen you and have no idea what's going on inside. They've been told just to keep others out, not in."

I couldn't believe my ears. Freedom was so close. Maybe I wouldn't need Jimmy to come and save me for once. I really hated being the damsel in distress, but it's not like I had a choice this time.

The pipe began to violently convulse. My teeth chattered. It felt like my brain would shake right out of my head, if it were possible.

"Crumpets! Girl, there's… Some thing… I must…. tell you," he told between breaths as we scrambled further down the heating duct.

"Kinda running for my life right now! What!?" I shouted.

"Eustace mustn't know," he said grabbing my ankle.

The metal bit into my knee as he pulled me back to him. The cotton pants the guards had dressed me in tore violently, scraping open old bruises.

Nose to nose, his face dead serious, he beseeched, "You cannot tell him, under pain of torture and death."

"Yeah cause Eustace and I are bosom buddies at this point. Why would I tell him anything?!"

"The baby isn't his!"

"WHAT!???"

It seemed as though time had stopped, the universe suddenly reversed its flow, the Earth spun backwards on its axis. It was a surreal moment.

"I-i-i-I couldn't do it to you, my dear," he stammered. "You were too much like my Georgia when she was young. Headstrong, feisty, spirited. I couldn't bring myself to do that to you. Eustace assumes it's his own, because the embryo is too small to safely test. His insanity is genetic and I could not… could not…"

"You couldn't let another psychopath loose on society?"

"Right. I could not. One Eustace Strytch is bad enough, another…" he shuddered.

"I don't understand. If it's not Eustace's baby that I'm carrying, whose is it?" I asked.

"Your baby belongs to one James Isaac Neutron, boy genius," his face flushed as he admitted it.

My jaw dropped to the bottom of the shaft.

"How is that even possible? How do you have his DNA?"

"When the failed League of Villains met for the first time King Goobot told us his story of how the Yokians returned to extract their revenge on Jimmy. He said that **you** told him the secret to getting into Jimmy's lab was his DNA and that everyday Jimmy plucks a hair from his head to gain access to the lab."

"I don't remember that…"

"Goobot also went on to explain that he had obtained a sample of Jimmy's DNA that he had on his ship. I betrayed that floating ball of phlegm, like Eustace did when he put the Trojan on the Junkman's ship. I stole that sample from the Yokians."

"I synthesized his DNA and fused it with your own. The eggs that were implanted in you, my dear girl, are exactly the same as your own offspring would have been."

"Jimmy's…. Jimmy's baby?" I placed my hand tenderly on my abdomen.

Only in my wildest daydreams during my imprisonment had I imagined that I would carry Jimmy's baby. Most got no further than my escape and reunion with my loved ones.

"You see why Eustace mustn't know! I fear he would use that further to his advantage to crucify you and young James."

Abruptly the metal duct fell out from underneath him.

"Keep going!" he implored me.

My feet felt glued to the floor, hindering any prospect of my flight succeeding. I watched as he fell to the ground and his head cracked against the cold concrete. He lay there as if dead, but I knew that the fall would have just knocked him unconscious.

A giant electromagnet pulled the framework from beneath. In a walker similar to Jimmy's Robo-walker sat Blix and Eustace.

"There you are Cynthia darling," he said clapping his hands with mocking glee. "And I see you've made the acquaintance of my geneticist, Professor Calamitous. I was wondering where the two of you had gone."

A giant metal arm burst out of the walker and grabbed me under my armpits. The look in his eyes shook me to the core. He had a murderous intent no doubt. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to discover what his intentions were before I too collapsed into unconsciousness.

'_Darn him and his drugs'_ was the last thought to flit through my brain.

_

* * *

Some hours later_

When I came to I was again on my back, strapped down to that infernal bed. I shut my eyes, hoping this all a bloody nightmare.

"Ga!" I exclaimed straining against the shackles.

"Finally," I heard Eustace say, "We've been waiting so long. I was beginning to think you would never wake up."

Involuntarily my head turned to stare at him. He was sitting with his feet propped up against my bed. His languid body seemed poised and ready to jump up at a second's notice. He looked at me, raised his eyebrows in mock coyness, and stood. He causally strolled over to the other side of the room.

Sitting next to him in a metal chair was Calamitous. I had never seen the old man look so piteously. He was strapped to the chair. The macabre scene sickened me, turning my stomach.

His head was a giant bruise, and his nose was undoubtedly broken. Crimson blood flowed freely down his face from a gash over his once white eyebrows. Fresh blood added new stains to the older dried ones on his white lab coat. From the amount of gore on his clothes it was obvious he had been bleeding for a while.

Tears filled my eyes. I felt the remnants of the old hatred that I had once bore for him melt away at the sight of him. Yes he had helped Eustace in the beginning stages of his plan and tried to kill me numerous times, but he had risked his own life to try to save me. He was no longer a diabolical villain, but a comrade in arms, a fellow prisoner of war.

"Just let him go!" I cried. "Please Eustace! Have some mercy!"

"Mercy?" he chuckled bitterly as though he had never heard the word before.

"I-i-I t-t-took a chance," Calamitous mumbled through his pain. "I knew it-t-t wouldn't b-be long enough for our es-s-scape. I h-h-oped you would have made it out."

"Shut up, you old fool!" Eustace bellowed, turning and cruelly slapping him across the face.

The blow split open his lower lip causing more blood to spill down his face.

"Stop it! He did what you asked him to! Let him go!" I begged again.

"I kn-n-now my fate," he winced.

I wracked my brain trying to think of some way that I could prevent this, something that I could say that would make Eustace spare his life.

"He only did it to save his daughter! Please! Let him go!" I pleaded.

Never had I sounded so weak, and yet here I was, not even begging for my own life, but for the life of someone who had committed heinous acts against me and the people I held most dear.

"Oh yes," Eustace said turning a malicious eye back on me, "About that. I never intended to let any of them go. I had your deplorable daughter and her ridiculous excuse for a husband killed months ago. Why it was before I even had you Cynthia."

Calamitous' eyes grew wide as the words. Shock and horror contorted his face as Eustace's words registered.

"Yes you heard me right," Eustace smirked. "It was easy enough. I took care of them myself, just like I will you. No one betrays Eustace Strytch and gets away with it."

The loathing contained in Professor Calamitous' eyes would have dropped a charging bull elephant in its tracks.

"Now do you have any last words before you go?" Eustace asked giving him a simpering smile.

"G-g-g-go?" Calamitous voice held a tiny snippet of hope.

"Yes to join your 'precious' daughter."

The professor turned his gaze to meet my eye. His eyes filled with tears. All the work he had tried to complete, for his daughter and myself, worthless. His eyes implored me to keep his final secret.

"Tell James I'm so sor…" he was cut off, not finishing his last sentence, as Eustace snapped his neck.

"Eventually all things come to an end. He outlived his usefulness," Eustace's voice held no warmth.

"You… you monster!" I gasped.

An unholy strength filled my veins. I struggled wildly against my shackles.

"You'll pay!" I shrieked at him. "You'll pay! When Jimmy gets here, he'll… he'll…"

I couldn't see Jimmy harming anyone. It went against his nature…

But it wasn't against mine.

"I'll kill you myself!" I shrieked all the more loudly at him.

"I'm afraid my pet, your James won't be coming," he smiled at me vindictively. "I've been tracking his movements this whole time. It seems that he and your little mob of yours transported themselves into another dimension a week ago, and haven't been heard from since. They were supposed to be back five days ago, but James' parents aren't holding out any hope. Neither should you."

He turned and walked out the door, leaving me in the room to my anguished screams of vengeance and Calamitous' corpse.


	13. Picture

Disclaimer: I'm running out of creative ways to say I don't own Jimmy Neutron, so I'll just quote my best friend, shame on Nick for ending it!!!

I also don't own the song Picture, Mute Math does.

A.N. #1 Italic is thoughts and flashbacks. Bold and italic is the song lyrics.

A.N. #2 Sorry that it's so long. This chapter kind of took on a life of it's own.

A.N. #3 Oh! I have to tell you, I was writing the previous chapter and listening to Mute Math on my computer and the words to their song Picture inspired this chapter. I pretty much lost it writing this chapter as well. I'm sorry if I make anyone cry.

* * *

Jimmy's POV

'_What was I thinking?'_ I thought to myself. _'Cindy, oh God!'_

"Come on Jim," Sheen said softly.

He put his arm around me and steered me toward where I parked the Hover-car.

'_What have I done?'_

Mindlessly, I punched in the coordinates so that the autopilot could take us to the wormhole. The gang was quiet around me, not knowing what to say as we sped off to the park.

The wormhole stood open, the colors still reminding me of an oil spill in the sky. The borders were not as defined as they had been during our initial trip. The power source must have been running out, but I was too lost to realize it.

Knowing what to expect this time, I welcomed the pain of inter-dimensional time travel. At least there I could focus on the physical pain. The twelve hours of agony were well worth it.

'_I'm such an ignoramus, imbecile, moron!'_

I started calling myself all sorts of names, only to stop short remembering the times Cindy had called me those very things.

We arrived back at the clubhouse in what seemed like a nanosecond. Instead of landing in the lab, strangely the wormhole dropped us out in the backyard. A brilliant flash lit up the night sky as the wormhole disintegrated. Funny, the sun should have been shining.

"Jimmy! Oh Jimmy we thought you were never going to return. We thought you were dead!" my mom shouted running out into the backyard in her nightgown.

She ran towards me, her face revealing more worry lines than I cared to remember. My dad ran quickly after her and caught the two of us up in a gigantic hug reminiscent of my triumphant return from the League of Villains.

"I'm safe too Mrs. Neutron," Carl said extending his arms.

"You knew we were going to be gone for a day, Mom," I reminded her.

I had known if we went missing for even an hour, all of our parents would have over reacted like they did when we were kids. Their anxiety would have also been increased by Cindy's disappearance as well.

So I took precautionary measures. I briefed Carl's and my parents together knowing that Mom would be able to tackle any questions that the Wheezers had. I prepared Libby's folks as well as Sheen's father together. The Folfax's and Mr. Estevez had become rather close as Sheen and Libby's relationship deepened. That obviously hadn't prevented my parents from worrying.

"Jimbo, it hasn't been a day," my dad replied with tears in his eyes. "You've been gone at least two, three months now."

"We've been so worried."

For a moment their words didn't register in my brain. When they did, it hit me like a semi full of nuclear waste.

"Three months," I whispered.

Things hadn't looked bleaker. I shoved myself from my parents embrace; not bothering to answer the questioning looks in their eyes. I pushed past a shocked Carl and Sheen to the entrance to the clubhouse. Plucking a hair from my head and letting Vox scan it, I gained access to the lab.

Sheen, Libby, and Carl followed me to the bowels of my lab. No longer able to bear the weight of everything that had happened I collapsed. Libby ran to my side when I broke down on the cold concrete.

"Jimmy!" she cried.

"Just go," I said monotonously.

"But Jim…" Carl started to say.

"GET OUT!!!" I bellowed.

Silently they trudged through the doors, which sealed themselves, leaving me alone in my grief.

* * *

Some days later

I had barely moved since losing it after our arrival. Everyone was worried. I had curled into a ball refusing all company and sustenance. How could I function when I failed Cindy so?

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a picture sitting on a shelf, long forgotten. I stood and removed it from the ledge. It was a picture of the two of us on Cindy's 16th birthday, the year her parents got divorced. Seeing the happy smiles on our faces brought new tears of shame to my eyes.

_

* * *

June 5__th__, Cindy's 16__th__ birthday_

_They had been fighting for over a month and a half now, Cindy's parents. Two weeks ago I had found her in the park sobbing. Today of all days it was the worst. It had been exactly two months since her dad had lost his job and it was Cindy's 16__th__ birthday. _

_School had let out the week before for the summer. Most families had taken advantage of this summer to get away. Sheen's dad had made plans to spend the summer visiting family out of the country, and they had left the day before the last day of school. Carl's family on the other hand decided that Carl hadn't seen enough of our "glorious country" as they put it. They set out for a cross-country road trip to see the sights. Libby's parents had acquiesced and sent her to a music camp in California three days before._

_At the loss of her family's extra income Cindy had graciously scrapped the plans for her big birthday celebration that she had been planning to hold the day after school was out. She had spent many weeks previous planning it. She knew that her parents wouldn't be able to afford much in the way of presents as well, but she certainly didn't expect them to forget her birthday entirely._

_Cindy had been over every night so far this week to escape their feuding. We had been up until at least one in the morning each night until she finally passed out from sheer exhaustion. I was extremely fatigued. Each night I would carry her home and tuck her into bed. I did my best to distract her and cheer her up, but I didn't know if it was working. _

_I was hoping that her birthday would put her in better spirits, or at least her parents in a better mood. After all it was her sixteenth birthday. I had been planning her birthday gift from me for some time. _

_I was close to finishing it already, but with the late nights, it had made it hard to concentrate. Cindy had already walked in on me while I was working on it one night, so I decided to abandon working on it until she was in bed for the night. That had worked until last night when we both passed out watching another lame Sci-Fi movie and laughing at the scientific improbabilities._

_My circadian rhythm woke me at 9 o'clock the next morning to find Cindy curled up next to me. Some time during the night Goddard must have wrapped us in a blanket together. She looked so calm and peaceful, as she smiled in her sleep. I wished she could stay like that forever. _

_Internally I sighed, hating to have to wake her and send her back to her house, but her parents would worry if she didn't make it home soon and that would probably set off another round of fighting._

"_Cin," I whispered, shaking her gently. "Cindy, come on birthday girl. Up and at 'em."_

"_Mmmhmm," she mumbled._

_Still deeply asleep, she snuggled closer to me, burying her face in my chest._

"_Uh… Cindy?" I stammered awkwardly. "You… you should… probably get up now."_

_My voice cracked embarrassingly. Thankfully she was still too far-gone to notice, or so I had though._

"_Huh?" she blinked up at me._

_Her emerald eyes gazed at me sleepily. A slow smile spread across her face. Apparently she was not fast to wake in the morning._

"_I was having the best dream," she murmured through yawns._

_She closed her eyes and attempted to drift off again._

"_Cindy it's 9. Your parents are going to be looking for you soon," I told her._

"_Oh," she mumbled. "Ok I'll be back later."_

_She got up and left the lab, taking the blanket with her._

_Shaking my head I walked over to the locked cabinet where I kept her present. Hopefully her parents would keep her occupied for a couple hours so that I could finish her gift._

_I had scarcely put the finishing touches on her gift and wrapped it neatly in its box when there was a knock on the door._

"_Funny," I said to myself as pulled up the security camera on Vox's screen, "who would be knocking on the door to the lab? Everybody who knows I'm down here would just come in."_

_There, standing slightly off screen, was a patch of blonde hair I would have recognized anywhere. I deactivated the security system and walked to the door._

"_Cindy, why didn't you just come i…"_

_I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of her. She had curled her hair before putting it into another ponytail, and changed into a strapless light blue sundress. It wasn't the choice in outfit that made me halt. It was the expression in her face. _

_She had been crying again. I took a chance and wrapped her up in my arms. I couldn't help but notice that she fit snugly underneath my chin. Cindy sobbed against my chest while I guided us to the couch. _

"_They-they-they for-forgot my-my-my birth-d-d-day," she whimpered._

"_Oh Cindy."_

_I couldn't think of anything else to say. It broke my heart to see her in such a state. I held her against me, rubbing her back gently as she cried herself out. Goddard handed me a tissue, which I promptly handed to her. She blew her nose softly. _

"_S-s-s-sorry I got your shirt wet," she said._

"_It's ok. I have an industrial strength stain remover in the closet."_

_Suddenly I had an idea. It wouldn't make what her parents had done any better, but it would take her mind off of it for a while._

"_Wait here for a sec."_

_I ran over to the bathroom to change. Vox's programming quickly modified my outfit to match the summer day's heat. I dashed back out._

"_Come on," I said grabbing her hand._

_We ran to the Hover-car and I quickly set coordinates to the parking structure at Retroland. Still dragging her behind me, I purchased two entrance tickets._

"_We're going to have a great time today," I whispered in her ear. "Trust me."_

_I felt her shiver slightly at the breeze my breath made against her skin. Cindy gave me a feeble smile._

"_Alright, how much worse can this day get?"_

_But the day didn't get worse. We actually had a great time. I think the turning point was when I screamed like a little girl on the new rollercoaster they had just finished. Both of us laughed so hard that we started to cry._

_We had just finished a dinner of hot dogs and cotton candy and were sitting on a bench in the park. The sun had just started setting, creating the most brilliantly hued sunset. The golden glow lit up Cindy's face while she watched it. _

'_I should tell her,' I thought to myself. The timing seemed perfect._

"_Cindy… I… I…"_

"_Yes?" she turned to me._

"_I-I"_

"_Spit it out, Neutron."_

"_I have something for you… A birthday present," I said chickening out. _

"_A present?!" she gasped._

_I pulled it out of my pocket. _

"_I hope you don't mind. I kinda took part of it from your room the other night."_

_I laid the gift gently into her eager palms. She enthusiastically tore into the paper and removed the velvet box. Delicately she slowly pried open the box and caught her breath._

"_It's wonderful, Jimmy," she breathed. "Would you put it on me?"_

_I nodded and carefully pulled the necklace from the container._

"_I soldered the chain myself," I admitted bashfully. "That's what I was working on when you walked in a couple nights ago."_

"_And you added the pearl from that time we were stranded on the island together?"_

"_I wanted to remind you of a dark time that turned out to be a blessing in disguise."_

"_It's perfect. Thank you Jimmy," she remarked. "Thank you for everything."_

"_The day's not over yet," I said as I tugged her to her feet._

_Taking her hand again, I pulled her into the arcade. We spent the next couple hours competing against each other in various video games. Needless to say, I got my butt handed to me on a titanium-plated platter._

_Near the parks closing Cindy located a photo booth._

"_I wanna remember this day forever," she declared._

_We leaned close so we could pose for the series of pictures. Before the last click of the shutter I felt a pair of soft lips against my cheek._

"_Thanks again for making this day so special, Jimmy."_

* * *

Present time

In Evil Retroville, I had seen what we would have become. Granted we wouldn't have been evil, but we would have been happy. Could have had kids. Been together.

_**I see our fate; I see our past**_

_**And all the things that could not last**_

We had been so happy. The summer we had spent together in my lab, it was like heaven. The adventures that we had as children: Special girl, Golfing on Mercury, Astrubies, League of Villains, saving everyone from The Happy Show Show.

_**It's heavy on these eyes, frozen as I hold this photograph.**_

_**It's all we're left that's of any worth**_

This would be the only way I would be able to be with her now. It was as far as we would go.

_**And it's so much more than a thousand words**_

_**Now in this frame is our only way we can endure.**_

_**I pictured you and me always**_

_**And in this photograph we're safe.**_

'_Why couldn't it be like that now?' _I thought to myself.

_**All I hear in my head**_

_**Are all the words I wish I'd said.**_

I should have told her so many times that I loved her. I should have told her that day in Retroland, should have never been afraid. So what if she rejected me. At least I would have tried to be a man. At least I would have known how she really felt, could have had some form of happiness with her before this.

_**Sentimental thoughts are overwhelming me again.**_

_**As I stare through a lens of tears**_

_**At what remains of those fallen years**_

_**Now in this frame memories are held to persevere.**_

_**I pictured you and me always**_

_**And in this photograph we'll stay**_

_**I pictured you and me always**_

_**And in this photograph we're safe.**_

_**Coping with this loss has broken me.**_

I had never felt more incomplete, as though half of me were missing. There was a stabbing ache in my chest where my heart would have been.

_**I'm just hoping things are all as they should be.**_

_**I pictured you and me, you and me**_

_**I pictured…**_

Not bearing to look at the picture any longer, I hurled it across the room. The frame shattered on impact. I let loose another scream of anguish. I realized I had just destroyed the last reminder of Cindy.

There was an unexpected knock on the door.

"Jimmy, we know you're in there. We're very worried. Please let us in," Libby said calmly.

Unbidden she and Sheen walked into the lab.

"We still have that bag of hair, Jim. You can't keep us out forever," she stated.

"You know Jimmy, Dostoyevsky once wrote 'Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on Earth."

"Wow Sheen," Libby divulged, "I didn't know you had read Crime and Punishment."

"Crime and Punishment? No one of the extras in Ultra Lord episode 372 told Ultra Lord that right before the extra blew up. It was so cool!" he admitted.

Libby elbowed Sheen and rolled her eyes.

"Jimmy, we love you, but you need to stop sitting around feeling sorry for yourself! Just think! Cindy and I didn't nickname you Big Brain for nothing!"

I sighed.

"To quote a girl we both know and love, 'Why don't you buck up, mister, and put that big brain of yours back to work?"

* * *

A.N. Just in case you're wondering about the time line at this point of the story Cindy's at least 4 months pregnant with Jimmy's baby and has been in Eustace's keep for 5 months. Let's hope Jimmy gets his act together!


	14. The Right One

Disclaimer: Nick owns Jimmy and the other characters, but I own the plot, a couple of the inventions, and one day have plans to own the world.

_

* * *

Jimmy's POV_

"To quote a girl we both know and love, 'Why don't you buck up, mister, and put that big brain of yours back to work?" Libby said, placing a hand on her hip. "We can't do this without you. We need your help."

I sighed again, but I knew she was right. I don't know what took them so long to finally come talk me out of my funk. Cindy would have been kicking my butt if I ever shut anyone out for longer than a day. I didn't want to think about what she would have done if I ever gave up hope like I had this time.

"Alright," I admitted.

"We know it wasn't Evil Jimmy now. That leaves only two other options, Eustace Strytch, the world's most spoiled rich boy, or Professor Calamitous." Libby simply stated.

"But we don't know where either of them are," I bemoaned. "Neither of them has been heard from in years."

"Actually guys," Sheen piped in for the first time, "Eustace has her."

"How do you know that Sheen?" I asked skeptically.

"Cause I was watching Ultra Lord last night and there was breaking news. I hate the news. I was about to change the channel when they flashed a picture of BG," he chuckled nervously looking at Libby at the mention of Beautiful Gorgeous.

"They said that she and her father were dead, and that for more information you check out their website."

"Boy you knew that Calamitous was dead and you didn't say anything?" Libby admonished.

"Whaaat?! I was gonna wait until we could tell Jimmy. We can't get to Eustace without his inventions. Anyway they didn't say much other than he was dead and something about something else. I don't remember anything…"

"Hold on! Let me pull up the news on Vox" I hurriedly said.

I ran to the computer. The broadcast was simple to find since it was the biggest news to happen in the area since our reappearance. Unlike most of the news clips available online this one made me agree that I was at least 18 years old.

'I wonder why it's making me do this' I mused.

"This just in," announced an attractive female reporter. "The U.S. government has finally got the warrants to search the orbiting spaceship belonging to the alien known as the Junkman to look for the notorious Professor Finbarr Calamitous.

"Officials say that obtaining permission to search the ship has been problematic, because technically the craft does not fall in any country's jurisdiction."

"Channel 8 News was live on location when Retroville police served the warrant. What they found will forever be ingrained in infamy."

"Be warned. What you're about to see is graphic in nature and should not be viewed by anyone with a weak stomach or under the age of 18."

The cameras cut to a scene that seemed like a still from a horror movie. Dried blood, both rust red as well as an unusual purple color that must have come from the Junkman, covered the walls. Mixed in with the gore were several bullet holes and scorch marks that could have only come from the Junkman's various laser guns.

As the camera panned across the room two humanoid objects could be seen lying on the floor. One draped across another large form that I immediately recognized as the Junkman's body.

"All three cadavers showed advanced signs of decomposition, but a positive identification has been made for each of them. Self proclaimed Professor Finbarr Calamitous, daughter Georgia ' Beautiful' Gorgeous, and the alien life form known as the Junkman are dead."

"Police confiscated the ship's internal security video footage, which Channel 8 has exclusive access to."

"Again, the footage you're about to see may be disturbing"

The scene showed the interior of the Junkman's ship again; whole and clean this time. Beautiful Gorgeous and the Junkman seemed to be a nice night at home. They were curled up watching a movie together. They appeared to be like any other couple spending time together, other than one of them being a disgusting alien.

The security cameras continued to roll as Professor Calamitous entered the room. There was no sound to the film, but it was obvious that he was angry about something. The happy couple turned to look at him. Concern was well etched into Beautiful Gorgeous' brow.

"Wow he looks madder than my dad when I painted his car Ultra Lord purple," Sheen confessed.

We watched in horror-stricken as the three began to fight. Calamitous took out what looked to be a revolver and started waving it around. At this the Junkman pushed Beautiful Gorgeous behind him protectively to keep her from her deranged father.

He shook both of his right index fingers at the scientist. Beautiful Gorgeous cowered behind the Junkman atypically. The Love Potion #976-J must have made some personality modifications. I made a mental note to log this later after we had found Cindy and things were back to normal.

Both jumped as Calamitous discharged the weapon into the ceiling. The bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and jettisoned into the camera's wall mount. The impact knocked the camera askew. The screen flickered black for a moment before returning to the back to the room. Calamitous was now off screen.

He must have shot the gun another time because both Beautiful Gorgeous and her husband, who were still visible on the monitor, jumped a second time.

With this shot Beautiful Gorgeous started yelling at her father. Her entire demeanor changed as she flew into a fit of rage that matched the one on Calamitous when he entered the room. She tried, in vain to reach him, but the Junkman held her back with one set of his arms.

While he held his wife, he looked like he was pleading for something. His face serene even under the pressure he must have been feeling, he spoke calmly to his father-in-law. He held up his free hands in a gesture of peace.

His attitude ought to have worked in calming the older man down, but it must have infuriated him. The couple jumped a third, fourth time. The Junkman pulled out a laser gun he concealed in his pocket.

Calamitous fired the gun a fifth and final time.

Upon the last shot, a purple stain appeared on the Junkman's chest. Still holding his wife, he clutched his chest with his free hands. He staggered forward, releasing Beautiful Gorgeous. He collapsed on the ground, shuddering.

On baited breath, we watched as he reached for his wife. She fell to her knees with tears streaming down her face. He cradled her head in a hand. She cupped her hand around his and shook her head. Though none of us could actually read lips we could determine he was telling Beautiful Gorgeous that he loved her a final time.

Like a scene from Romeo and Juliet, Beautiful Gorgeous knelt over the body of her dead husband. She kissed him one last time on his lips and stood.

She held the laser gun her hand. She screamed something to her father, her face distorted with rage. Beautiful Gorgeous fired three blasts with the Junkman's plasma laser.

In unison with her last shot, she fell forward. A bright pair of crimson patches bloomed on her chest where her father's shots hit her. Her body convulsed a last time as she too joined her husband in death's arms.

"Wow! I knew that Calamitous didn't like the fact his daughter married a filthy alien, but I didn't expect him to do that," Libby said.

"I don't think that he did," the words came impulsively from my mouth.

"Huh?!" they simultaneously exclaimed.

"Did you notice the time stamps at the bottom of the screen?" I inquired.

They both gave me blank stares.

"They're different,"

I dragged the cursor back to the beginning of the second clip.

"This one says that it was four months before…" I gulped not able to finish the rest of the sentence.

Fast-forwarding the clip to just after the camera was knocked awry, I pointed to the screen.

"This part is from three days before Cindy…" again I hesitated. "There's no way to know if it was Calamitous, but I don't think it is. He loved his daughter. I mean he even gave her away at her wedding. Plus did you see their bodies? Beautiful Gorgeous and the Junkman seemed to have been decomposing at least three months longer than Calamitous'."

"Excuse us if we didn't notice Jimmy, neither of us have an IQ of 210 and take in everything at once," Libby exploded.

"Chill out Libby," I said. "I was just pointing out inconsistencies in both timeline and victim psychology."

"Sorry," she hung her head. "I guess I'm just a little stressed from everything that's been going on."

"Tell me about it," I said rubbing the top of my head. "Hey what's this?"

When I pulled up the Internet story, my browser automatically pulled up my email inbox. Amongst the many emails I had received while we were away was one an email with the subject 'Save Cindy.' It wasn't from an email address that I recognized and was dated only a few days after we had entered the Dark Matter Dimension.

Opening the email, I read it aloud for Sheen and Libby.

**To: BrainBlast **

**From: PrfFinCal **

**Jimmy Neutron,**

**It is I, Professor Finbarr Calamitous, once villainous monster, now attempted redeemer of horrible tragedies. If you are reading this email and your beloved Cindy is not at your side, it is because I have failed. **

**I am sorry to have played any part in this calamity.**

**Some time ago, that wretched boy Eustace Strytch kidnapped your Cindy, my family, and me, bent on seeking his vindication. **

**I cannot tell you where we are, for not even I know that, but I can provide you with schematics and the guard schedule for when you do find us. I have hacked into his mainframe. **

**Tonight I will attempt our escape. I pray that it goes well and both of us will be reunited with our loved ones soon.**

The email ended there. It struck me that he still couldn't finish anything, but like he had said attached to the email were two files.

I switched to one of my laptops just in case it contained another encrypted virus. Opening the first attachment I sighed in relief. It wasn't a virus. Like the email had said, it was schematics to a fortress.

"Awesome!" Sheen cried out, "It looks just like the impenetrable fortress from Zombie Hunter 5! Only it wasn't as impenetrable as they thought and some of the zombies got in and ripped all but the hero and his lady to pieces."

Libby gave him funny look. My own face mirrored hers.

"What? I was bored and there weren't any episodes of Ultra Lord on."

"Actually, it does look like there are two ways to get into the building, but one of them is crossed off. There's a note at the bottom," I said.

"**If we haven't escaped by the time you're reading this, don't try this way,"** it read.

The diagram showed the entire compound, including the barracks, mess hall, and Eustace's living quarters, which were in a separate wing from the rest of the building. My hand stroked the screen longingly on the location of the chamber labeled 'Vortex.'

I opened the other file as well. The first thing I noticed about the schedule is that it was completely male. It seemed that the only female in the vicinity was Cindy.

The guard roster seemed to be divided between the inner and outer complex. No guard listed among the outer complex seemed to have access to the interior of Eustace's base, nor did the inner crew have access to the outer portion of the headquarters.

"We still don't know where the fortress is though!" Libby moaned.

"Actually, I can trace this email back to its originating server. We could have her location by lunch time," I declared.

"Jimmy… it is lunch time," Libby sighed.

"Oh. He he," I laughed nervously. "Well then by dinner time

"Cool! I'll call Carl! He'll be so excited. Jimmy can we break out the N-Men packets to celebrate?" Sheen exclaimed.

"Sheen," I calmly explained. "We used those years ago."

"Aw C'mon Jimmy, didn't you synthe-ma-size more?"

"We used everyone packet but mine in the battle against the League of Villains. All I have left is the sample from my own mutation, and that won't help. If I took it I would be too enraged to do anything productive. Look at what happened last time. Cindy was the only one who could calm me down enough to change back to my normal self. There's no telling what could happen if I took it now."

"Anyway there's nothing to do right now, except wait for Vox to run diagnostics on this email. I'm kinda hungry. You guys wanna join me for some of my mom's cooking?"

Libby put her arm around my shoulder.

"See you didn't even need a brain blast there, Jimmy," she said as we walked up and out of the lab.

* * *

Dinner Time That Night

My mom was so relieved that I was up and about that she made all my favorites. Sheen, Libby, and I were stuffed. Carl had come over for dinner too. She must have been feeling guilty about the length of time we had been missing because she kept trying to force us to eat more, piling large helpings of food onto our plates. Finally I had to be dogmatic about it.

"Mom, we're going back down to the lab," I stated.

Seeing the worried look on her face, I quickly amended, "Don't worry. We'll be up in a bit for desert."

We made a break for the lab. There blinking on the screen was what we had longed for, what I had ached for, for so long, Cindy's location. Hacking into one of NASA's satellites I gained access to a real time view of the concrete village. It was almost ten miles off a little used back highway to the nearest big city. Most travelers chose to use the new highway constructed with a direct line to the city rather than use the windy back road. The countryside was deeply forested and highly secluded.

My insides screamed with elation. Sheen spun Libby around and swiftly kissed her.

"We found her! We found her!" Carl cried with delight.

Watching the couple kiss gave me an idea.

"Sheen, we're going to need your car," I said a malicious glint in my eye.

"Uh ok Jimmy. I'll have to go get it… We rode the bike here," he said grabbing the keys to his motorcycle and deftly planting another kiss on Libby's lips as he left.

"Carl?" I asked turning to him. "Can you go tell my mom that we have to go, but that we'll be back for breakfast, and to make sure there's enough for five? Oh and while you're in the kitchen can you snag a couple of pies from the fridge. We're gonna need 'em."

"Ten-four good buddy," he said saluting me.

"Libby, I need you to do something when we get there, but I didn't want Sheen to hear. He may not like it," I told her while I rummaged through a drawer.

"Anything to get Cindy back," she said, a similar manic glint in her eye.

* * *

A.N. My original title for this chapter was too long so I had to change it. The original title is: In Which Jimmy Gets His Act Together.


	15. Broken

Disclaimer: If I owned Jimmy Neutron I would totally have a Twonkie! Course I'd be mauled in two seconds for all the music I listen to

A.N. I've been debating on how this chapter's going to turn out… but I think what's happened to Cindy, psychologically and physically, during the time that the rest of the team (Oh sheesh did I just call them that?) is gone needs to be written. Anyway here it goes.

* * *

Cindy's POV

I had screamed myself hoarse. What voice I did have left I used to curse everyone who came into the room, the henchmen who came to remove Calamitous' body, the ones who came to shut me up, and the doctors who came in to check to make sure we were fine. I mean that the baby was fine.

When even my loudest scream became an inaudible squeak I sunk back into silence. I no longer fought them; no longer had the energy to keep going. To say that I was catatonic was an understatement.

Eustace's people stopped taking me to the workout rooms. No one came to get me to put me through the daily mental gauntlet. Not even that slime bag Eustace came in to gloat. The only time I saw anyone was when the doctors came for an examination, or someone dropped off meals.

Since Calamitous' death I hadn't been able to eat. Even the thought of food made me physically ill. It was worse than the time Carl had eaten those Plutonian Gut Chunks when we had appeared on the Intergalactic Showdown. Watching an innocent man die a cruel death would be enough to turn anyone away from food.

This too would be my fate once the baby was securely in Eustace's foul clutches. There was no chance of escape. Like a candle dumped into a bucket of ice water, the last shreds of hope were extinguished when Calamitous had failed to free the two of us and was murdered for his attempts.

'_I want to die' _I thought not for the first time. _'Why go on? I'm going to die here anyway.'_

Part of me, a huge part, wanted to die. It seemed that Calamitous' slaughter had achieved what Eustace's thugs had failed to do in the months I had been with them. I was broken. Let exhaustion, hunger, and the mental torture take me. Stick a fork in me; I was done.

Yet an internal war waged within myself at the same time. I didn't want to end up like Calamitous, who was probably buried somewhere far from here, and I certainly didn't want to hurt the baby. At some point along the way I had stopped thinking of it as just myself escaping, but as the two of us, the baby and I, fleeing. Somewhere along the line, I became a "we."

Since Calamitous revealed to me that the baby wasn't Eustace's disgusting spawn, another fire had been lit. It blazed close to where the hope had once burned, but it scorched much hotter. Call it maternal instinct, survival of the next generation, or whatever you wanted. I'm sure Darwin would have had a field day with this. I wanted a future for my baby. Jimmy's baby deserved a chance at happiness, even if I didn't. Our child would never get that opportunity in my current circumstances.

Concurrently another battle was fought. If I died, Eustace would never have the baby. He or she would never have to be used for Eustace's power trips, be used for a punching bag, and never be exploited by the manipulation master himself. Eustace would never use the child I bore to hurt anyone else, especially Jimmy.

'_No!' _ screamed another part of my brain. _'What are they going to do if you die? Your friends and family? Jimmy? What would they do if they found that you'd given up?'_

'_You're just going to die anyway,' _retorted the other part. _'Why prolong the inevitable?'_

'_No!' _the original voice shouted. _'They're going to come! Jimmy's going to come!'_

'_Why? What do you mean to him? You were never nice to him. Why should he care what happens to little Cindy Vortex, his archrival from elementary school?'_

'_Shut up!'_

'_No. You know I'm right. Why should he care what Eustace does with you?'_

'_Because he's a decent guy and I-I-I…'_

'_Oh just get over it! He doesn't know that you're in love with him, and at this rate he never will,' _the latter part exclaimed with satisfaction.

'_I… he… when… when we get out of here I'll tell him. I'll tell him that day that I love him, that I've always loved him, that I'll always love him.'_

'_Yeah, that'll happen… How do you plan to escape?'_

'_I-I-I don't know…'_

'_Nor will you ever. Face it. You're stuck. There's no escape, no reset button. Only cataclysmic failure.'_

'_Vortex's don't fail!' _a third part that sounded like my mother would shout.

'_You already have,' _the second one would reply.

'_I'm still alive!' _the first would shriek.

'_Not for long. The baby'll be here soon enough. Eustace won't need you then.'_

'_No! There has to be a way.'_

'_There is no way. You've tried everything. There's no one left to save you.'_

'_No! No! NO!'_

* * *

The argument rolled through my head in a constant refrain. I felt like I was going mad, but there was nothing that I could do to stop arguing with myself. The anxiety, the crazed thoughts spinning in my head, ravaged my body about as much as the hunger strike did. I could feel the hunger pangs growing. My stomach rumbled louder and louder each day. I wasn't intentionally trying to starve myself, but the internal dialog, which ran like one of those annoying pop songs that got stuck in my head, left me immobile. I didn't know what to do, how to prevent myself from ending up like Calamitous and his family. I couldn't figure out which course of action was the right way to go. Finally after three days of nutritious meals delivered to my door going to waste, the two remaining doctors were forced to act.

"Miss Vortex," they said, reproachfully, "we need you to eat. Got to keep the baby healthy."

I refused to acknowledge them. Did they seriously have no clue as to what was going on here? How could they not know what happened to their predecessor? They too would most likely meet some grisly fate after that mad man no longer needed their expertise.

"Really, you need to be ingesting something. Do you want to die?"

'_Yes!' _I thought to myself, but again I remained silent and continued to stare unblinking at the ceiling.

"You leave us no choice," they sighed.

I felt a sharp pain in my right arm. Looking down for the first time, I saw that they had inserted an IV needle into it. Apparently if I wasn't going to eat, then they would force the nutrients needed for survival into me. What else would they force me to do?

I shuddered at the thought.

After the doctors turned to leave, I quickly rotated my arm, trying to maneuver my appendage into an angle so that I could try to slide the needle from my veins. One of the doctors unfortunately decided to turn at that moment and caught sight of what I was doing. He scowled and walked back over to me.

"Sorry," he said snidely. "We can't have you doing that now can we?"

He tightened the restraints on my arms. Before, I had some movement capabilities, just enough to shift to a different position when things go too uncomfortable or to reach down to my stomach to cradle the baby when no one was looking. Now I could barely lift my hands an inch off the bed. The chains bound my hands to the side of the bed now, almost painfully so. There was no way that I could pivot my arm to remove the intravenous drip feed. He extended his arms down and tightened the chains restraining my feet as well.

"Just in case," he mumbled as he left me again.

* * *

It was another week before the doctors realized that their meds and vitamins weren't working like they had hoped. It wouldn't be the first time someone died from too much stress. Though I was constantly supervised, the doctors were baffled. They couldn't figure out why I seemed to get worse. As my mental trip through the pits of hell continued, my body wasted away. While I had always been pretty petite, my body now seemed almost anorexic.

After the second week of my unintentional unresponsiveness, the doctors, fearful of my deteriorating condition, brought in a heart monitor and other biometric feedback apparatuses to assure themselves, and probably Eustace, that I wouldn't go into cardiac arrest without their knowledge. The two of them took turns sitting vigil, watching me in shifts. During the day one would sit by my bedside carefully monitoring the read outs of my vitals while the other slept. The rhythmic beeping of the machines, the beating of my own heart, what was left of it, lulled me to sleep most nights when the two switched places. Barely noticeable to my own ears, though, my heartbeat slowed until one day the two quacks made an emergency call to Eustace.

"Sssssir," I heard one of the doctors stutter.

"What is it?!" Eustace screeched as the metal panel flew open.

"Something's wrong, sir," they told him.

"What is it you nincompoop?!" he demanded again.

He sighed and rubbed his head in his hand in frustration of having to repeat himself to the men who worked for him.

"We're not sure, but the-the baby's not getting the nutrients it needs," the older doctor said.

"Meaning what exactly?" Eustace asked with a sneer.

He was obviously pissed that the doctor had the audacity to speak to him period. I wondered what Eustace would do to this doctor to seek his revenge. It seemed that it was getting easier to trigger his wrath these days. He had beaten a guard the previous week outside my door for "looking at him funny."

"At this rate she won't live out the week," the younger of the two specified.

'_No!' _ screamed the parts of me that wanted us to live.

"I-i-i-I've read about a treatment that worked on a p-p-p-patient s-s-s-similar to this. The-the mother was s-s-s-so st-t-t-tressed that her physicians had to put her into a drug induced coma,"

The hesitation in the young doctor's voice was palpable. There was something that the doctor didn't want to tell Eustace. He must have sensed it too.

"And?!" he demanded.

"And it's risky, especially for the mother. Too much of the phenobarbital and we could lose them both, not enough and the surrogate's stress kills them, but given the current conditions it may be the only thing that saves the child."

He gave the other man a conspirator's look that screamed, "Help me out here!" The older man nodded quickly. His head comically reminded me of the Ultra Lord bobble heads that sat on the dash of Sheen's car that Libby had always teased him about.

Another ache ripped through my chest as I thought of my best friend and her fiancé. I would never get to be her maid of honor now. She had sworn the day before I had been taken that she would throw the bouquet right at me, and that she would make certain that Jimmy caught the garter. I was sure that she would have enlisted Jimmy's help in searching for me, but she had probably given up her pursuit for me by now. Even a person as obstinate as Libby would have given up after two months and I had been gone longer than that.

"He's right. It could work, sir," the older man confirmed.

"I don't care what you do, but the baby must live!" Strytch commanded and the screen snapped back together.

The two doctors looked at each other and nodded submissive acceptance. They both knew that I was only valuable to Eustace as an incubator for his child. The only reason they would keep me alive would be to bring the baby to full term. Risks to my life only took precedent if it endangered the baby. It seemed that my worries only made things worse, again. They always did.

The older one walked out the door. He returned with a cart. A series of syringes lay on the metal medical cart. The glint on the needles from the scant light that shone in through the tiny window caught my eye. Again I was reminded of Sheen and his preoccupation with shiny objects.

'_If I ever see him again I'll have to make sure to be extra nice to him,' _the thought came unexpectedly into my head.

It was too cliché how he held the hypodermic syringe upside down, tapped it, and expelled a small amount of liquid before injecting it into my left arm.

'_Bastard didn't even have the nerve to put it into the IV drip,' _I thought to myself when I felt the sting of the needle.

Slowly everything faded to black. Just before the waves of medication consumed me entirely, I heard the high-pitched whine of my heart flat lining.

"Crap! Crap! Oh crap! We are so dead if she dies!" yelled one of the doctors.

My senses were too fuzzy to make out much more. Apparently they had overestimated the amount of barbiturates my already weakened body would be able to tolerate. Fortunately for them they were able to resuscitate me and restart my heart.

'_Great going guys!' _I told them later in my head. _'Yes give the 5'4" petite pregnant girl enough drugs to stop her heart'_

Regrettably they decided that they would err on the side of caution the rest of the time and give me just enough sedatives to calm the voices running throughout my brain. I was still conscious of the things that happened around me, but not much of it made sense. It left me in a fog that I couldn't escape. It was like a bad dream that never ended.

It's a heady thing to hear yourself die. It brought back the desire in me to live, but unfortunately the drugs achieved a far worse sense of detachment from my body that any of my fretfulness had. I would have started eating again had they offered that alternative to me, but they didn't know that. They weren't mind readers.

Snippets of conversations would float in and out of my mind while I was on the drugs. At one point I heard the doctors exclaim to the guards that it had taken them 4 minutes to restart my heart, but that now I was fine. I still wasn't gaining weight, but I was fine. Another time I caught a muffled argument out in the hall.

"It's a girl!" one voice stated their disbelief.

"Impossible! It's supposed to be a clone!" an additional opinion said.

"That old quack must have messed something up then, cause I'm telling you it's a girl!"

"The idiot probably grabbed two X chromosomes instead of a Y,"

"The boss'll be fine with whatever he gets,"

* * *

Time passed, as it always does. The drugs made it seem like I had left the tap on full blast and the tub was overflowing. I felt like years were passing me by. As much as I tried, there was no escape from it either. Those blasted drugs forced me to sit back and listen. I couldn't even lift my eyelids without exerting extreme force.

Nothing more caught my ear until one night there was a scuffle outside my door. I assumed it was Eustace raining blows on another one of his hapless goons for some imagined transgression. That happened a lot. It wasn't until the doctor at my bedside went to the door with a panicked pace that I noticed something was off. There was another scrap inside the room and a low thud that sounded like something heavy hitting the floor.

Through the haze of the drugs I heard a familiar voice call my name. I heard my heart rate increase on the monitors as I recognized the voice. It filled me with a hope I hadn't dared to dream of for months.

"Cindy!"

* * *

A.N. I know I'm leaving you with a giant cliff hanger again. I am so cruel!


	16. The Last Night

Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron; Nick does, but they're the fools who cancelled an amazing show! "Ha! Take that Nick and all your ilk!"

* * *

Jimmy's POV

It had been 5 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, and 24 minutes since I had last seen Cindy. 4 months to the day since I had received my final note from her kidnapper, whom I now knew to be Eustace Strytch. He had sworn his undying hatred would pursue me without rest when we were naught but children, but I had no idea that it would involve the woman I loved. Finally after what seemed like a lifetime of searching and failing to find her, our three closest friends and I were on our way to rescue her. This would be the last night she would be held captive, alone and tortured by that repulsive villain.

"Tell me again what we're doing?" Sheen asked.

"We're goin' t' save Cindy," his fiancé retorted rolling her eyes.

"I know that, but I don't understand why we have to take my car if Jimmy's going to have the Hover-car follow us."

We were speeding down a deserted highway in the dead of night. Usually Libby would have given Sheen a hard time for breaking the speed limit and going as fast as he was, but given the circumstances she continually told him to hurry up. The song on the radio station Sheen had on in the car ended and broke into an emergency weather report. Looking out the window I could see wave after wave of thick dark clouds rolling across the normally cloudless star filled sky. It seemed fitting that, after all we had been through to save Cindy, the night we would actually liberate her would be the night the worst storm on record would roll through Retroville.

"I already told you, Sheen. We need your car to approach the compound and distract the guards from seeing us gain access to it from the back," I sighed exasperated.

"Libby's going to push the car towards the compound and tell the guards that she's lost and her car broke down. While she's drawing off those guards we're going to sneak to the east side of the forest and cut into the air conditioning duct. You're going to slide through the vents and into the security system's main hub. After you put this in the main computer terminal, it'll deactivate the system,"

I held out a small USB drive. On the drive I had installed a modified version of Strytch's super-virus. Not only would it crash the hard drive to the security system, it would also hack into any accounts that Eustace ever accessed from the computers on his networks and dump all the funds into various bank accounts across the globe.

"When you're done destroying the computer system, Sheen, you'll come with me. I may need your help with anything that'll come along."

"What do I get to do, Jim?" Carl asked.

"Carl you get to go over to the other side of their base and cause another diversion with this," I replied, handing him a small lighter.

"Boy you must be outta your mind! You ain't MacGyver. You mean we're gonna rescue Cindy with a flash drive, a broke down car, and a lighter?" Libby shook her finger at me.

"You're forgetting the pies," I added, "Don't forget the pies!"

"What do we need the pies for?" Carl asked eyeing them hungrily.

"Don't eat them!" I smacked his hand that had started reaching for the banana cream pie that was sitting in between the two of us in the back seat. "I put a strong sleeping draught in there. One taste could drop a charging bull elephant. Libby is going to give them to the guards as a 'thank you' for helping her out. They should go into a deep coma-like sleep for 12 hours and wake with the worst headache."

"That sounds awful risky, Jimmy," Sheen said glancing back at me through the rearview mirror. "How do you know they aren't just going to shoot my chicky baby?"

"I'm willing to take that chance Sheen. Just trust Jimmy. I do," Libby placed a hand on Sheen's arm and squeezed it gently. She leaned in gently and softly whispered, "and don't call me chicky baby anymore, or I'll name our first child Robo-fiend."

She planted a kiss on his cheek and leaned back. She closed her eyes and went back to mentally prepping herself for the task she had been given.

"I-I-I-I," he sputtered unnerved at Libby's threat. "I don't know. We don't know what we're getting into."

"Sheen," I said leaning forward in my seat. I rested my arms on the seat back between the couple and placed my chin on my hands. "You saw the list of Strytch's employees right?"

"Yeah,"

"Did you notice that the entire crew is male?"

"It is?" he asked.

"Yup. It is, and I'm willing to bet that Eustace hasn't let anyone leave the base since they abducted Cindy," I said slyly. "I didn't want to mention this, but just think, if you haven't seen a woman for over 5 months and a poor helplessly lost, soaking wet Libby appears out of no where are you going to shoot her?"

"Hey! You didn't say anything about being wet when you told me this the first time!" Libby scowled at me.

"Have you looked out the window Libby?" I inquired, pointing out the window. "I don't think dry is going to be an option when that hits."

Following the direction I had indicated, she nodded. A bolt of lightning flashed in the distance. On the horizon, the rain poured down in buckets obscured the light from the city. Obsidian clouds eclipsed the moon. It struck me that the rain seemed to be a curtain shielding us from view of the world. Tonight the rain would wash us clean so we could start afresh, or become a new set of tears to cry for this tragedy.

'_Funny_,' I thought to myself _'I've never had a poetic side to me, but finding Cindy seems to have brought that out in me.'_

"Wait a minute!" Sheen blurted out after a long while. "You mean all those burly henchmen that Eustace has hired are going to be ogling the future Mrs. Estevez?!"

"Sheen, I'm marrying you, not any of them," Libby ruffled the back of his hair playfully.

"There's the turn off," I said.

Sheen turned the car down the windy dirt road. He pulled over about a mile in and turned on the dome light. He and Libby swirled around to face Carl and me to go over the blueprints one last time.

"Eustace cleared the brush along the last half mile before his place, so we'll have to take the Hover-car around from there. The base is built like castle from the late Middle Ages. Thick raised walls surround an inner building. There's one main hallway underground that leads from the exterior to the citadel. There should be guards posted as sentries on all the parapets, looking for anything unusual."

"Libby, you won't have to 'push' the car very far before the guards will be able to see you. When all the guards are out cold, you rendezvous with Carl here. Let him in the base and run down this corridor."

I pointed to a hallway on the map.

"From there you can take these stairs to the roof. We'll be linked via these headsets. Each of us will be able to see and hear everything we say, so if anything goes wrong the others will know about it. The screen's split into as many panels as you need on your peripheral vision. In this case it will have three screens, each labeled with our names. I call it the Neutronic Peripheral Monitor or NPM for short. I know, not very creative, but I've been working on other things."

"I don't know what a peripheral is, but these look cool," Sheen declared.

He snatched a device out of my hand and jammed it onto his head. It looked like one of those annoying cell phone devices, except it had a small screen that folded across the left eye. After Sheen had broken into Cindy's room, I realized that we needed a better way to share multiple points of view. I made them while I waited for Sheen to get back with his car, taking me a half hour to construct all four.

"After Sheen and I get Cindy, we'll meet you guys on the roof. The Hover-car should be waiting there."

My three best friends looked at me. I had never seen any of their faces as serious as they were now. Determination and a hint of manic hysteria shone in all three pairs of eyes.

"If anything goes wrong, get yourselves out of there. It's me Strytch wants. I already lost Cindy to that mad man and I don't want to lose any one else,"

I stretched my arm to place it on Carl and Sheen's shoulders. We had been through so much since becoming friends when my family moved here in elementary school.

"I-I-I love," I attempted to say.

"You don't need to tell us Jimmy we know. Three Amigos remember?" Carl said.

Lightning flashed dramatically overhead. Thunder reverberated across the sky, a drumroll that crescendo-ed to accent the patter of the cloudburst. The rain had finally caught us.

* * *

"Ok Libby, we're in position," I relayed over my headset as another rivulet of water trickled down my cheek.

We were huddled in the coppice that Strytch had allowed to grow back. Sheen and I had dropped Carl off at his infiltration site five minutes previous. The two of us were drenched from the deluge already. From our position in the woods I could see several guards along the walls. Each one was clad in black shirts and black jeans. Their muscles rippled underneath the black fabric as they took turns preening before their comrades on the metal rampart. Sheen and I could see the glint of light refracting off their night vision goggles and the guns strapped to their chests.

I built the NPM with night vision capabilities, but unlike the current standard night vision goggles used by the military, these ones came with a light sensitivity chip. Normally soldiers abstained from wearing them during a thunderstorm because each flash of lightning brought temporary blindness and eventually led to eye damage. The visual software on the Neutronic Peripheral Monitor ran on a two second delay and automatically adjusted to filter out sudden harmful light changes. If we lived through this, I would definitely have to sell this invention to the US Military.

Strytch apparently didn't know, or care about the impairment that the electrical discharge of lightning would cause to his men. If he had been smarter he would have thought that through. This would be his downfall.

"I'm ready too," Carl said.

He must have been really nervous. Through the communication device I could see him flicking the lighter on and off. This would be the first time that he would face any kind of adversary without Sheen or me by his side.

"Gah! Carl cut that out!" Sheen stage whispered. "You're distracting me!"

I glanced over at Sheen, surprised that he would realize that he was being distracted. Thanks to the NPM I could see my face when Sheen turned to face me. Shock and another mélange of emotions were apparent on my face.

"What? A guy can't learn how to curb his hyperactivity?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes at him and focused back on Carl and Libby.

"Sheen's right," I admitted, "You don't want to run out of lighter fluid before the time comes."

"Guys," Libby's voice issued from the NPM for the first time, "I'm all set to go."

"Libby," Sheen whispered, imploringly, "please be careful, and watch out for the guys on the para-puppets."

We watched as Libby thrust the car forward. I remotely activated the car's alarm from my watch. Our goal was to attract the most attention possible, without them having a chance to put a bullet in Libby.

"You stupid two-bit piece of junk!" she screamed. "I should have never bought you from that moronic salesman. Great gas mileage my…."

"Who goes there?" a voice commanded in the night.

"Oh thank God!" she squealed like a young schoolgirl. "I thought I was all alone on this backwater highway!"

"Stop right there!" the voice demanded. "Don't come any further or we'll be forced to use lethal force."

"But-but I'm all alone and my car broke down and I'm really lost," she lied.

She slowly walked around to the other side of the car, holding her hands up in the air in surrender. Libby looked up at the man guarding the main gate. He too was wearing something to aid his eyesight in the dark. The laser sighting of the gun glinted off the glass of the NPM before trailing down to Libby's chest. I had given her a tight white tank top for her to wear before we left Retroville. It was an old one of mine that had been lying around waiting to be given to the Salvation Army. I hadn't been able to wear it since my growth spurt, but it would fit Libby's lithe frame nicely. Libby, like the guys and I, was soaked to the bone already as well. The rain had turned her shirt near invisible. Before she had left the car she threw on a cropped light pink hoodie. Libby had placed herself between the car's headlights and it must have lit her up alluringly.

"Jimmy this is the last time I let you dress me. I look like a hooch," she grumbled through clenched teeth.

"Sorry," I whispered, "At least you have your jacket on."

Four sets of eyes watched as the guard's jaw plummeted.

"Dude guys check out the babe!" we heard the man utter in an undertone.

It was almost comical how the rest of the men along Libby's side of the wall and some from our side as well flocked to the original man's position to leer at Libby. Out of the corner of my right eye, Sheen clenched his fists. He muttered darkly under his breath and shook his head to clear his thoughts. It was clear he didn't like the men eyeing his fiancé.

"Carl you're on!" I spoke softly.

Sheen and I watched in horror as he fumbled with the lighter, dropping it in the rain. This rescue operation needed perfect timing to go off without a hitch. Carl knew that, knew how dire this situation was.

"Crap!" he cursed.

"Wow Carl! I've never heard you swear before!" Sheen said.

"Now's not the time Sheen," I rebuked him.

"Right,"

Carl managed to pick up the lighter and ignite the small pile of detritus that I had provided him for kindling. It instantly burst into flames. The rain should have deterred the fire from growing too large, but the undergrowth around the complex had apparently been dehydrated by an extremely dry winter.

"You guys! The lightning hit the ground! The brush is on fire!" yelled one of the guards on Carl's side.

Three of the remaining five guards ran to the aid the men trying to put out the blaze. Two guards gazed back and forth trying to decide which was more important, the fire, Libby, or obeying Strytch's orders.

I turned to Sheen and nodded indicating that this would be the best time for us to begin breaking into the compound. I tugged a lancing laser from my pocket and began to hack away at the metal bars. Strytch must have used some strong metal alloy to build this airway. Too bad for him my newest set of lasers could cut through anything.

"It slices, dices and even makes Julian fries," Carl whispered giggling.

He coughed once. The smoke must have gotten to him. The view from his screen bounced up and down as he jogged through the woods back to Libby.

Elsewhere Libby was having a better time with things. She stood just inside the door of the compound, chatting with the guards who had helped her out. They hung on her words like she was the Pope. It reminded me of the way the girls had lingered in between classes in high school to talk to Nick Dean.

"I don't know how to thank you guys for fixing my car," she said demurely.

"It's our pleasure ma'am," one of the mindless drones said shyly.

"Wait! I know," she said snapping her fingers as though she had just remembered something. "I have a couple dozen pies in the back of the car. I told my mom I'd take them to a bake sale in the morning, but I'm sure she won't miss a few."

"Oh we couldn't," the same guard said.

"Yes we could!" one of his friends elbowed him in the ribs. "Dude it's been forever since we've had anything as sweet as that." He indicated Libby with his hand, "And she's offering us pie!"

She turned as though she was going to head back out into the storm, but one of the guys must have stopped her.

"Let me," the horny guard who had agreed to take the pies. He dashed out into the tempest.

"We're in," I relayed to my two friends as the bars to the air vent clunked heavily to the ground. Luckily another peal of thunder covered the stentorian sound.

"I'm just on the edge of where we left Libby," Carl wheezed.

Libby graciously doled out the pie to the watchmen, making sure that every one of them got a piece of the pastries. The underling who had gotten the pies placed an arm around Libby's shoulders. The view shook as she shuddered under his touch.

"You know," the first guard remarked with a piece of pie in his mouth, "You never did tell us what you were doing here in the first place."

"Oh," Libby started, caught of guard. "I'm meeting up with some friends to save my best friend from this woman-beating slime ball she's been staying with for the last several months."

"I wish we could heeeeellpp…" he said yawning. "Man I don't know why I'm so tiiiiiiired all of a sudden. Like I said I wish we could help."

His eyelids drooped. He leaned against the wall along with his fellow minions.

"Oh you've helped enough," she said saucily as they fell asleep. She poked the guy who had brazenly checked her out and he crashed to the floor in a death like sleep.

"Jimmy, if you ever suggest something this degrading, demoralizing and blatantly sexist again, I'll have Cindy rearrange you face so that you look like a Picasso!" Libby told me as she opened the door to let Carl into the building.

"We have to get her back first," I quipped.

"Then what are we waiting for!" Sheen exclaimed. "Let's go!"

* * *

A.N. Originally I intended this chapter to be way different… there was more, but the chapter's already long enough as it is.


	17. There's Hope Where You're Going

Disclaimer: I own ideas, nothing more.

* * *

Jimmy's POV

"Alright Sheen, just crawl past that corridor and you'll enter the main hub of the computers," I said.

Libby and Carl had headed down the hall I had pointed out to them earlier on the map. They halted at the door that would lead them to the courtyard of the complex. There was no way that they would be able to get further unless Sheen managed to disable the alarm system.

I was waiting for Sheen at the end of the air conditioning duct. He was the only one I knew who could get past Eustace's booby traps. On the schematics Calamitous had sent me it had shown a large computer nerve center that controlled the alarm systems to the entire complex. Strych had apparently hired a high tech firm to create the perfect center, complete with an electrified pressure sensitive floor. It was set up in a way that if any individual placed both feet on the floor it would automatically send a shock to their system. The jolt wouldn't be enough to kill the person, but to knock them out until a security guard could get there.

Unfortunately for Strych, the system required both feet to be on the ground to create the current. He obviously didn't know about Sheen's ability to put his leg behind his head. Not to mention all the tests I had done on Sheen when we were younger had rendered him almost impervious to all but the most extreme forms of pain. For his eighteenth birthday he had forced us to go to the tattoo parlor with him while he got his first of several tattoos. He had been more excited about the tattooing process than he was about the tattoo he was going to get.

"Roger Jimmy, I've found it," Sheen announced.

The ground sizzled as he bounded across the room. We were both soaked and dripping water. A puddle lay around my feet, but the current on the floor a few feet away from me evaporated the droplets that cascaded off Sheen. It was a good thing I had slipped the USB drive into a waterproof container before we left the car.

"Now place the flash drive into the USB port and let the virus work it's magic,"

"Jimmy, I thought you didn't believe in magic," Carl asked.

"Carl," I groaned rubbing my forehead with my hand, "it's just an idiom."

"Oh," he replied. After a few minutes pause he spoke again, "What's an idiom?"

"An expression, a phrase. Never mind," I sighed.

I heard a faint clicking noise as the system shut itself down. I grinned almost evilly. From my spot on the opposite side of the gap I could see the many screens of the computer terminals blinking in various colors and then finally all but one turned black. The final screen flashed once, twice and then flickered into oblivion.

"Give it up for the 'Chosen One," Sheen said hopping back to me.

I threw him a sideways glance. On the border between the opening of the vent and the room he stopped. He leisurely placed the foot that had been behind his head down on the floor. Instantly volts of electricity shot through his body. He glowed and any moisture that had been on him instantly evaporated.

"Mmmmm" he relished. "Smooth."

I slid my hand over my face to hide my reaction from Sheen. On the NPM I could see Carl and Libby exchanged looks.

Glancing my way, Sheen chuckled, "Sorry I just couldn't help myself."

"Sheen, boy, sometimes I worry you're turning into a masochist," Libby disclosed.

"HEY!" he called out indignantly. "I resemble that remark!"

I closed my eyes and snickered, "You sure do Sheen."

Libby pushed open the door a crack and peeked out. When she realized that the coast was clear she slipped through as quietly as she could. Carl followed closely behind. The door glided shut without so much as a creek. They only had single stairwell and destitute passageway to access the roof. The hovercraft would be waiting, invisible to anyone not wearing an NPM, there.

"Come on!" I called to Sheen buoyantly.

Like Libby and Carl, we were close to our destination as well. This thought filled me with jubilation. I dashed down the tube as quickly as I could. Straight ahead at the next intersection, two rights after that and we came to a grate at the end of the duct. Again I lanced the metal.

'_This is almost too easy,'_ I thought to myself.

In contrast to the last time that we had broken through the screen, there was no audible crash of thunder to mask the clamorous ruckus the falling of the grates caused. As misfortune would have it, the falling scraps of metal would make their deafening announcement at the same moment a man in a white coat rounded the corner.

"Who- who- who g-g-g-goes there?" mumbled the startled man.

He hadn't been expecting to hear the thudding of metal on the cold concrete. I heaved myself out the tube and turned to face him. Tall and lanky, his nose resembled a boxer who had his nose broken in a fight. There was a definite distinct possibility that a certain blonde-haired, black-belted minx had broken it. I secretly silently applauded her for retaliating back against her oppressors. No one could break _my_ Cindy.

He had the air of a doctor about him and somehow I knew he would be able to tell us Cindy's exact location. I didn't really need him to tell me, but if they had moved her from her room, he looked like someone who would be able to tell me where they had put her.

"Where is she?" I growled, throwing him my most fearsome expression.

He would know whom the "she" I mentioned was. There was only one female within a 10 mile radius that he would know about. His eyes grew wide as he took in my disheveled and enraged form. I briefly wondered if Eustace ever warned his crew about me. I pulled an old favorite invention of mine out of the mini-hypercube in my pocket. I pointed the Hypno-ray at him.

"Who-anbuda-wha-dnan," he struggled in vain to find words.

"Don't. Make me. Repeat. Myself," I uttered in an even lower voice, punctuating each consonant, over enunciating them. I squinted my eyes at him.

"Who-anbunda-wha-nananna," nonsense spilled from his lips again. His terrified face looked close to tears. Finally he turned and indicated that I should follow him.

"Jeez Jimmy," Libby whispered over the Neutronic Peripheral Monitor. "Scary much?"

I growled low back at her.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side, Jim," Sheen said shadowing me.

"Ditto," Libby and Carl said simultaneously.

He led us down the metallic passageway to the room that the schematics had indicated. They obviously still didn't know that their security systems had been hacked and rendered useless. I shook my head at the idiocy of it. Even when Strych had wiped Vox's hard drive, I still had a separate rudimentary security protocol in place so that no one could break into the Lab.

"They just don't make villains like they used to,"I mumbled under my breath.

He paused before the last turn. He looked back at the two of us, and shook his head slightly. Rounding the corner I could see two hulking guards standing at relaxed attention on either side of a single white door. Too tight t-shirts and jeans accentuated both men's mesomorphic bodies. So great was their muscle distortion that their actual ages were undeterminable. The unpigmented door was plainly labeled "Vortex" just like it was on the map that Calamitous had sent me. A key card scanner rested to one side of the door just behind the shorter guard's shoulder.

"You're back," one of the lunkheads commented.

"Yeah, heh heh," the doctor laughed tensely. "I came to show these gentlemen…" he trailed off.

"You know what the boss said. Only you and the other doc are allowed in there," the other one said.

"Oh well this is a…" he started.

"Sorry dude, it's our hides if he even finds out you brought someone into the compound," the first guard shrugged his shoulders. The two of them swapped looks at the sight of the two of us.

Most of the residual water had dripped off of me already, but my clothes were still soaked. My hair drooped and several strands of hair hung in my eyes. My ebony t-shirt clung to my chest, clearly defining the muscles that I had built from working on heavy inventions. Next to the two guards, however, I looked like I was the same scrawny kid who had tried to face down a music-crazed pack of Twonkies.

Sheen, in contrast looked like he had been hit by the lightning that, through the aid of the headsets, I could see still raged on outside. His hair stood on end and his clothes still smoked from his brief encounter with the electrified flooring. He had a deranged glint in his eye as well.

"How'd you get 'em past security anyway?"

"We broke in," I told him casually. I glared fiercely at the man as my arm snaked out and punched him violently in the face. Instantly he dropped to the floor.

"Hey! What the?" the other guard didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Sheen punched him in the stomach and then shoved his fist percussively into the man's nose. There was a sickening crunch as the guard's nose broke. He too collapsed on the floor. Turning back to the doctor, I swore. He had run off while we were temporarily distracted with the guards. Shrugging, I reached into the fallen man's pocket, but the door slid open before I could grab his ID card.

Another man stood in the door. He, like the doctor who had led us to Cindy's cell, was clad in a white lab coat and black slacks. The man froze in the door, too shocked to move. He hadn't seen Sheen, who stood off to one side, pressed up against the wall.

"Oh what is this!?" I groaned.

Sheen adeptly roundhouse kicked him in the side of his head and he slumped down on the ground.

"Sheen? Where'd you learn to do all that?" Carl asked.

"TV," he stated matter-of-factly. "A guy can only watch so much Ultra Lord before he picks up a thing or two."

"Sheen, go check the hallways. Make sure that we didn't attract any attention with that commotion," I instructed.

I glanced at him to make sure that he was going to follow directions. He ducked his head and did an about face.

"This is it guys. She's supposed to be in here," I whispered reverently.

* * *

I paused in the doorway, taking a deep gulp of air. It was Cindy. She looked so fragile lying there stretched out on a metal slab of a table. The white hospital gown she was wearing was filthy, stained with sweat and small splotches of blood. Her blonde hair lay about her face in an unkempt pile. Her eyes were sunken and hollowed and the rest of her body was mottled, covered with bruises in various stages of healing. But at that moment she couldn't have looked more beautiful. My eyes had hungered to see her for so long that even this macabre scene was heart-stoppingly alluring. I would have lingered to savor the triumph that finding her brought longer, but I knew what would be waiting if I hesitated too long.

"Cindy!" I shouted.

I lurched forward. Like my own personal sun, her gravity had sucked me in, pulling me closer to her. She seemed to almost glow as I stumbled over to her. I nearly tripped over one of the wheels connected to the legs of the tables. It was awkwardly bolted to the ground. They must've unfastened it often because metal shavings cluttered the floor next to the grooves where the rivets attached to the floor.

I stopped again when she breathed my name in a soft angelic whisper. "J-j-Jimmy."

It was hard to think that years ago I once thought of her voice as a harpy's shriek. I stood over her, my eyes transfixed. I reached down to tenderly caress her face. Never before had I seen her so frail. She struggled to open her eyes.

"I-I-I thought you'd never come," she sighed.

"Shh" I held my finger to her lips. "Save yours strength. We're going to get you out of here."

She locked eyes with me for a moment. Her gaze was glassy from drugs, but underneath the blur of the sedatives I could see the fire that made up the very essence of her spirit burning brightly. She smiled tentatively and blinked slowly. I pulled the mini-laser from my pocket another time and severed the metal links binding her to the slab. I would have removed the cuffs from her, but I didn't want to take the chance that I would slip and accidentally cut her as well. I would take care of that back at the lab when we were safely free from that pompous rich boy's tyranny. I watched her labor to lift her arm from where they had been lying. Scars littered her wrists.

"No… hope…" she mumbled before slipping into drug-induced unconsciousness. Her hand tumbled back onto the table.

"There's hope where you're going," I told her fervently. "Come on."

I wrenched the IV from her veins and ripped the electrodes from her head and chest. _'She's too light,'_ I thought when I scooped her up in my arms. She hung like a rag doll. They must have been starving her as well. She weighed next to nothing in my arms. Even when I had transported her back to her parent's house after she had fallen asleep in the lab, I had to carry her over my shoulder. Now she fit easily in my arms as I cradled her like an infant or small child. I pulled her as close to me as I could get, holding her tight.

"What have they been feeding you, Vortex?" I muttered under my breath.

Then, because I knew she was too far-gone to notice, I kissed her gently on the forehead. She sighed softly and buried her face into my damp shirt.

"Um Jimmy, hate to break up your one-way love fest, but we gotta situation here," Libby's voice broke through my reverie. They had made it to the rooftop and were staring out at the rest of the grounds.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Well, Carl did a great job of creating a distraction…" her voice dwindled.

"And?"

"And the whole outer wall is on fire!" Carl gasped.

"We gotta get outta here!"

I spun around to see Sheen standing in the doorway. His coffee-colored eyes were wide with mixture of panic and delight.

"Fire!" he chortled mischievously, "I love fire!"

The overhead sprinklers kicked in accenting his last comment. The water was cold like ice compared to the warm rain that had bathed us outside. I began to tremble as we booked it down the hall. A sudden sharp piercing scream punctuated the night.

"Libby!" Sheen yelled. He sped faster in the direction of the stairwell that would lead us to the roof eager to get to his fiancé.

"Un-uh, that ain't me!"

"Carl?!" he asked.

Carl screamed again. Through his headset we could see the source of his fear. In the killer tripod that he had attacked the five of us in before our trip to Mars, sat Eustace Strych. Sheen threw open the door. It slammed into the wall and the metal crash reverberated through out the floor. He held the door for me. At the moment we burst out the door to the roof, a clawed hand stretched out to grab Carl around the waist. Libby had been waiting in the hovercraft like I had advised them to be, but Carl must have had other ideas. He had been on the other end of the roof staring at the wall of flames.

"Did they build their base out of magnesium and cover it in camphor?" I wondered.

"What?" Sheen asked turning to me.

"Nothing, never mind. Just take her and get the girls out of here!" I commanded him.

I briskly, but gingerly place Cindy in his arms. My hand softly grazed her face one last time before I turned back to Strych.

To Eustace I entreated, "Put him down! It's me you want! Leave them be!"

The hatch on his tripod opened up and he stared at me, loathing in his eye. He tried in vain to twist his face into a confused look, but his self-congratulatory smile gave him away.

"Why James, what are you and your little rabble of compatriots doing here?" Strych spoke for the first time. His voice dripped with derision and contempt.

"I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves," Sheen gulped as we ran across the roof to the Hover-car.

"Just try not to get hit by lightning," I said running ahead of him to meet Eustace head on.

* * *

A.N. Just so you all know, there's a lot more to the story, not just finding Cindy.


	18. Rooftops

Disclaimer: I own Jimmy Neutron, and the sky rains purple daisies every third Sunday. Yeah that'll happen.

A.N. Hooray! He has her! Huzzah! I'm so excited to have finally written that last chapter. I'm probably as excited about it as you guys who reviewed it were! *Does a celebratory dance to celebrate! * Wait that was incredibly redundant. Anyway it's been dying to be written for a long time now! This chapter may be a short one, but I'm not sure.

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Jimmy's POV

His contemptuous glare _could_ have bored holes into the back of my brain. It _could_ have scrambled the synapses and fried through the neurons of the frontal lobe, passed the parietal lobe, all the way to the occipital lobe, leaving me a drooling bag of flesh. His scowl _could_ have brought a lesser man to his knees, but after everything that happened: the anxious nights of worrying about Cindy, the angst-ridden days of problematic revelations, and the disastrous attempts at liberating Cindy from the hell that he had heartlessly been putting her through all this time, _I _could have cared less what his face looked like. As I stared back at him I felt rage consume my being. My frustration had been building and had finally exceeded my boiling point now that I had the chance to face him in person.

"STRYCH!" I bellowed. "Stop hiding behind other people. It's _me_ you want! Face me like a man! Damn it!"

"Whatever are you droning on about my dear chap?" he attempted to feign innocence.

"Put. Carl. Down," my already narrowed eyes constricted further.

Lightning flashed around us as another peal of thunder boomed. It created a sinister backdrop for the unfolding melodrama. It seemed that a single gaping hole, like the eye of a hurricane, had fixated itself over Eustace's lair, for the rain no longer fell down on us. The wind atop the structure whipped around us however blowing smoke from the nearby fire towards us. The monsoon that had poured on us scarcely a half-hour before was everywhere but here.

"But of course," he acquiesced.

He pushed a button and the clawed arm containing my best friend relinquished its spoils at a frightening speed. Carl rocketed across the sky and plummeted back down to the building's rooftop across from where the tripod stood. I winced, hearing a stomach-churning thud as his head hit the burnished steel. It bounced once on the unrelenting surface and he lay lifeless on the ground approximately three feet from the hover-car. I could see Libby and Sheen look at each other through the device I had built attached on each of their ears. Their faces mirrored one another in shock and horror. How many of us would he maim before he extracted his vengeance against me? Cindy already lay stretched out on a cot that I had the foresight to prepare, just in case. Now Carl would join her ranks.

Strych flipped another switch. A staircase the color of dried blood extended from the tripod with an ominous hiss and a thunk as it connected with the ground. He walked calmly towards me. The sound of his footsteps beat a slow measured staccato across the surface. With his hands placed leisurely behind his back, he looked like he could have been on a casual stroll threw a park somewhere. The hilt of a laser-sword at his side and murderous glint in his eye spoke a different story however.

I was almost surprised that he didn't have a gun on him, but Strych had always been a little old fashioned.

He pulled his laser-sword from his hilt and it flickered on. It shone with an unearthly black radiance. The flicker of the fire combined with the glimmer of the sword danced on the plains and angles of his face, disfiguring his already warped visage.

"I knew it was only a matter of time before you would deduce it was me," his icy voice reverberated through the glowing darkness.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Libby creep slowly, so as not to attract attention to herself, over to Carl's body. She latched onto his shoulders and began dragging him to the hover-car. She made it to the vehicle and heaved Carl over the side and onto the floor. She scrambled in behind him. Libby started frantically whispering to Sheen to start the engine.

It wasn't until I noticed my own head shaking in denial that I realized Eustace had seen her too. I couldn't believe that I had been absentminded enough to forget that Sheen didn't know how to drive the thing. The only one who did have the remotest inkling of a chance to start up the hovercraft was lying inanimate on the cot where Sheen had placed her earlier.

"Leave her alone!" I screamed trying to distract him from attacking her.

"Ah James always the chivalrous one aren't we?" he sneered turning his attention back to me. "A knight in shining armor perhaps?"

"Shut up you swine,"

He sauntered closer to me and crouched down. He reminded me of one of those jack-in-the-boxes, poised waiting for the end of the song to pop out. He was looking for the right time to strike. He casually tossed the sword back and forth between his two hands. Each time he deftly caught it.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist. Frankly I'm rather surprised that it took this long to decipher my clues." His voice held no warmth.

"What clues?" I barked back at him.

"Oh yes, I never did get around to sending them to you. No matter, you're here anyway."

He paused there and silence settled upon us like a fog. I reached for my own version of the weapon he held in his hands. It glowed the palest of blues, bordering on white. It was the only weapon I had ever created, and I had never tested it before. Really I had made it for the time we had performed Macbeth in Space, and had never intended to use it for anything but a prop.

I shifted my feet, balancing myself, bracing for his attack. We circled one another, waiting for the other to strike first.

Another crack of thunder punctuated the night. The accompanying lightning struck a corner of the roof, which instantaneously burst into flames. Eustace would never be able to use this building again. Smoke and ash swirled around us, making it hard to breathe. My lungs ached from the strain of the tension and smoke and my eyes began to water.

The bits of debris and gravel that was strewn about the area crunched under our feet adding to the cacophony of chaos that surrounded us. From other sections of the compound I could hear Eustace's men screaming and calling for help to extinguish the flames that had consumed the west side of the exterior wall and were reaching further into the base. The crackling flames roared around us. In my ear I could hear Libby's hoarse panic stricken voice hissing instructions to Sheen and Sheen's low muttered cadence of swear words. He included me in citing those he cursed, for not teaching him how to drive the hovercraft in the first place. I could also hear Carl's labored breath as he lay on the interior of the hover-car.

"Shouldn't you be launching into a monologue about how you knew that I couldn't resist rescuing Cindy right about now?" I queried hoping to buy Sheen and Libby more time.

"Why should I?" he responded, taking the bait. "After all why should I postpone your inevitable demise any longer by revealing the brilliancy of my schemes to you? A villainous monologue is so cliché don't you think? Do you really think that you'll be able to figure a way to get yourself out of this one Neutron? Do you really think you're going to have an inspired thought that will save you and your loved ones? I don't think so. I kidnapped your precious little trollop of a girlfriend Cynthia to seek revenge against her for all those times she helped you in the past, to destroy you, and to further my own ends. I've already accomplished breaking your sweetheart. Now that you're here I can finish off part two of that plan, and finally rid the world of the ingenuous Jimmy Neutron. I'll finish off your little friends, once I'm done with you."

Suddenly he sprung at me. Our swords clashed together. The lights emitted small sparks that twinkled to the ground. They snuffed themselves out before they reached their destination however, preventing the fire from spreading even more than it already had.

I grunted under the pressure of Eustace's heavy-handed blow. Admittedly I was taken aback. He never fought his own battles and I hadn't really expected him to fight this one as well. He didn't even have his manservant Blix with him.

His body shoved into mine. I could almost tell what he had for dinner that night when he exhaled into my face. His shoulder moved lower as he tried to gain leverage. It dug into my stomach as he leaned in towards me, driving me closer and closer to the edge of the roof and the certain death that would have awaited me if I fell off.

I heard Libby scream behind me.

"The big red button," I groaned through clenched teeth, pushing back at Strych.

I shoved with all my might against him. I caught him unprepared. He must have underestimated the strength of my resolve and my anger, because he stumbled back a few feet. As he came at me again, I quickly jabbed him in the eye with the first punch Cindy had ever taught me.

She had laughed over and over again the first time I tried to perform it. When she had finished snickering at my feeble attempts, she made me repeat the action again and again until, after what seemed like weeks of endless repetition and countless bruises and sore muscles later, I had it down perfectly.

Strych swore and reached up with his free hand to clutch his eye. The saber in his right hand swung wildly and caught the side of my arm. It cut deep into the muscles and sinew. Though the laser burned the flesh, it wasn't hot enough to cauterize the veins and tissues that it lacerated. I could feel the blood oozing down my arm, but I didn't have time to stop to fully ascertain the damage before Eustace came at me with another attack.

He braced himself for a moment and then ran straight at me. As he tried in vain to ram me off the roof again, I heard the hover-car finally sputter to life. The tip of his sword caught me above my right eye in the middle of my eyebrow. It burned worse than the deeper wound on my bicep. Inwardly I rolled my eyes when I remembered that there were more nerves in my face than there were in my arm, so of course it hurt worse.

Our swords locked again and he pressed himself closer. The fabric of his maroon blazer caught in the gaping lesion in my arm. I winced and started to lose ground. The tips of my shoes touched the very tip of the retaining wall. I could see the hardened earth on the other side. It didn't look very inviting, but Eustace had the upper hand. I desperately struggled to maintain my footing on the precarious ledge. One wrong move and I would be sent tumbling to the dry dirt.

"Jimmy move!" Sheen croaked out. It was only audible to me through the NPM.

I quickly sidestepped, spinning around. Strych had been so focused on pushing me straight off the roof that he was caught off guard when I slipped out the way. He teetered perilously at the edge. He dropped his laser-sword. One foot waved in the air as his tried to regain his balance. He had almost recovered when Sheen enacted his spur of the moment plan.

Strych never knew what hit him as Sheen deliberately drove the Hover-car directly into him. He clung to the plastic of the inner tube for a moment before his arms finally gave way and he tumbled to the earth and fire below.

Sheen whirled the craft back in my direction and I clamored in. I collapsed on the floor between Carl and the cot where Cindy still lay prone.

"Take us home," Libby whimpered.

I mumbled directions to Sheen on how to set the autopilot for the lab. I rested my head on Carl's stomach, using it for a pillow. My eyes closed, suddenly exhausted from the end of the rush of adrenaline. Someone, I was too enervated to open my eyes to see who, placed a blanket over me. Before I passed out completely I reached up with my undamaged arm and grasped Cindy's hand in my own.

"Home," I muttered.

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A.N. I love Eustace's monologue in the middle, especially how he admits that a monologue from a villain is so cliché. I had to put that in there…

Oh and if you're trying to picture their swords, it's like the swords from the show, more of a flat blade like a machete rather than like a light saber… I'm not so lame as to blatantly rip off Star Wars.

So much left to the story! What will happen to our wayward couple? Will they finally admit their feelings? What about the baby? Will Sheen and Libby's wedding go off without a hitch? Is Eustace gone for good?

Stay tuned!


	19. Adonis

Disclaimer: What? Me? Own Jimmy Neutron? I don't think so!

To everyone who's freaking out: Calm down! All your questions will be answered I promise!!! All in good time!!! I'm just a suspense dispenser! Ha try saying that ten times fast!

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Cindy's POV

I was having the best dream. I dreamt Jimmy came for me and rescued me from Eustace's lair; that my nightmare was over. I refused to open my eyes and shatter the good feeling that had enveloped me. I could still hear the electronic beeping of my heart on the equipment, so I knew I hadn't gone anywhere. I figured it must be the drugs making me hallucinate again. If I tried hard, I could smell the familiar metal and oil scents of his lab. My ears would pick up the whirring of the various machinery and experiments that had often lulled me to sleep during high school. I could almost feel Jimmy's warm hand in my own, but there had been many times before that I awoke to similar feelings and sensations.

"Jimmy you really should let a doctor see that," I heard a female voice that I almost recognized. "You're dripping blood on her."

"Just sew me up, Libbs. I'm not leaving her until I know she's alright," another familiar voice spoke with feeling.

"Jimmy! Oooh! Jimmy let me do it! Let me do it! I've done it tons of times on myself… You know when I've had accidents in the garage!!" a slightly grating accented voice piped up.

"No!" the first two voices vehemently protested together.

"Aww man!"

"Come on!" the female voice urged again. "We gotta take Carl to the hospital anyway. He needs to have his head looked at, and I think all that smoke is causin' his asthma to act up again."

"I'm not letting her out of my sight."

The imaginary hand clung tighter to my own, as if I would suddenly be stolen away. I lay there motionless letting my mind play out the drama. This was the most unusual delirium I had had since Eustace's men had put me under.

"You are _so_ lucky my mom made me volunteer at the Veteran's Hospital three summers in a row," the feminine voice finally conceded.

A pair of light footfalls pattered across the floor. There was a rustling on the other side of the room that sounded like a series of drawers being open and closed and plastic wrapped packages being removed from them. The footsteps grew closer to the place where I lay. There was a brief pause in sound, where I could only hear my heart and the slow repetitions of my own breath. Someone, not me, sucked in a deep gulp of air. I heard an audible flinch as the male voice let out a yelp of pain, or maybe it was the grip of the hand squeezing harder on my hand that made me imagine that the person who was attached to the hand was in serious pain. When the unreal owner of the hand realized what he was doing, his palm stroked the back of my hand compassionately.

"You could have used the Pain-Away Spray I have in that drawer," the man grumbled. From the sound of the first male voice I could tell he was wincing.

"What would be the point of that? I think you need to see a real doctor about this. It could get infected. Anyway why can't we take her to the hospital too?"

The hand that held onto me abandoned its post. From the way the light flashed over my closed eyelids it looked as though someone was waving their hands above me, pleading their case. I heard heavier footsteps, someone new, pacing close to my side.

"And tell them what exactly?" the man burst out in a fit of rage. It was him who was pacing at my side.

"That we've rescued her from one of my long lost villains hideout? That we don't know what they've been doing to her, but she's unconscious? Look at her Libby! How do you explain how emaciated she looks? How do we explain the bruises and broken bones? Cindy's face has been plastered around the news for the last five and a half months. You don't think the nurses at the hospital won't recognize her and immediately call the cops on us?"

Funny, it sounded like Jimmy, but Jimmy never sounded this angry in my imagination. I don't think I had ever heard him seem as furious as this new dreamed up Jimmy sounded. Even during the worst of our arguments he never sounded this pissed off.

"Oh!" The woman's voice was just as surprised as I felt.

"On that note," the second man announced, "I'll be out in the car."

I hadn't realized the second man was still there until he spoke up. A different squeaky set of treads moved further away from me. Something that sounded like a door being slammed reverberated in the distance. That was odd. The interior of Eustace's entire complex ran with automated doors. They never slammed. Of course this was a contrived daydream brought on by the narcotics those quacks had filled me with. Anything was possible.

"I want to run a blood analysis to see what chemicals Strych's men have been feeding her. I have all the equipment I need here in the lab. Plus I'm better stocked here with any medications she may need than most pharmacies. Depending on what those morons have been giving her, I may have to administer something to wake her up."

"But you bleedin' to death all over her ain't going to help. We have her back, Jimmy."

"I know. I can scarcely believe it, but I'm not letting her go this time, Libby."

There was a soft sigh as the woman exhaled and a susurrus of fabric when she walked closer to me and the source of the male voice.

"I'm gonna go make sure that Sheen makes it to the hospital with Carl alive."

The lighter footsteps retreated from my side. The door opened again. This time I could feel a cold breeze. How long had it been since I had felt a breeze? Maybe I wasn't delusional after all. Was it possible that the female voice was Libby? Blood? Sewing? I could tell there were still drugs in my system. Nothing made sense. The hand returned to my right hand and gave a small squeeze.

"Hey Jim?" Libby said as she walked to the door.

"Yeah?" he asked. His voice was the calmest I had heard so far. He gently stroked my arm and brushed back a lock of my hair with the opposite hand.

"You may wanna take your heart off your sleeve before she wakes up and sees it."

I heard a low chuckle and the hand release its grip. This time the door shut with a soft click. A hand brushed back my hair one more time off my face. It tucked one strand behind my ear and the heavy footsteps moved to the other side of the room. There was another sound like the rummaging of an intrepid genius through the various supplies that he contained in his lab.

It wasn't until I felt the pain of another needle being jabbed into my arm that I realized that something was off. If the drugs that the doctors had forced me to take were still running rampant through my veins, then how in the world would I be able to still feel pain? My pain receptors had, for a long time now, felt like they were muted, stuffed with cotton, or protected with a winter's wool coat. Still, I couldn't be sure. Even if this was a farce, it was still better than any reality I would wake up to.

The footsteps moved away again and were followed by a faint squishing noise, like someone flopping down into a chair. I could hear the agitated clicking of his fingers while he typed franticly on his computer. Above me a light came on and was quickly accompanied by a soft hum of some device. Jimmy had once showed me a scanner he was building. After many failed experiments, some with explosive results, Jimmy had decided that going to the doctor was a huge waste of time and money. He spent over a month creating a whole body scanner that would be able to pinpoint a mini-fracture in a less than a minute. He told me that with one five-minute scan it would be able to tell you anything that was physically wrong with the human body, all without the toxic hazards that accompanied most X-ray and CAT scans. He had made a small fortune when he sold it to the local hospitals. That must have been where I was imagining myself, in the lab.

He began to debate with himself while he processed the readouts from the blood analysis.

"What has that maniac been doing to her? An increase in estrogen and progesterone? HCG? What's that doing there? Blood work shows long-term exposure to pentobarbital and vitamin supplements? He must have been pumping random chemicals into her body just to mess with her. But the blood panel doesn't show any reason for her not waking up… Most of the drugs should have worn off."

There was a small ding as the scanner above me shut off.

"Holy Heisenberg! Body scans indicate that she's been routinely beaten and starved. No wonder she's so waiflike. Small healing fractures in two of her metacarpals and a fissure to her fourth metatarsal. Maybe I should have listened to Libby when she said to take her in. But they would have just called the cops. And what if Eustace had poisoned her? I know he said nine months but since he figured out when we would be there maybe he tried to kill her earlier. Pukin' Pluto! What if I'm already too late!? Maybe I should run her through dialysis so I can save her kidneys? What if…"

That sounded more like the Jimmy I knew and loved. He argued with himself for a few more minutes before I finally decided it was time to chance it and wake up from this "dream." If it was only a figment of my imagination then at least my subconscious was telling me that somewhere I was loved and missed.

I slowly opened my eyes to familiar surroundings.

I _was _in the lab. It _had _been Jimmy and Libby talking, discussing something. What had they been talking about again? My mind raced. Jimmy was so caught up in his ranting that he didn't notice when my heart stopped as I realized where I was. All at once my heart began racing. I hadn't dreamed it. Tears welled up in my eyes. My heart felt like it would burst from the pure joy it contained. I silently rolled over to face him. The tears overwhelmed me as I stared at the back of his head. A lump formed in my throat. I sobbed softly, but again he didn't hear me.

I was actually alive and free. Jimmy had saved me! Eustace would never get the baby. The baby! My hands flew to my stomach. There was a slight bump on my abdomen, barely noticeable, but it made some sense. I had starved myself for at least two weeks, and hadn't eaten anything since those doctors had put me under. Some women didn't gain weight anyway until they were almost due. Mom had said that she didn't even know that she was pregnant with me until the last two months before I was born. I must have taken after her.

He was sitting at his computer with his back to me. From the back, his hair looked shaggier than I remembered. He needed a haircut. I could see the bare science-toned muscles of his right arm while he swung it wildly while he berated himself. For a moment I couldn't speak. What do you say in these circumstances?

Eventually I managed to choke out the first words that came to mind, "Well, well, now we know, bereft of intelligent conversation and Cindy Vortex to dispute academia with, Nerdtron argues with himself. Whatever would you ever do without me, big brain?"

"Now listen here Vor-!" his voice cut off as he spun around in his chair to face me.

He stopped, his body freezing mid-swing, but the force he had put behind the spin made the chair swivel the full 180 degrees. I watched as his eyes grew round when the realization that I was awake dawned on him. Wearily, I propped my head up on my arm and stared at him through tear-blurred eyes.

Part of me was slightly freaked out. His left bicep was swathed with a huge pad of gauze that had already started to turn red as he bled through it. There was a cut over one of his eyes that, though held together with a butterfly bandage, bled freely as well. His tousled hair hung limp in his eyes and his face looked gaunt from stress. His normally clean-shaven face was replaced with a scruffy and stubbly beard.

The other part of my mind thought he looked like Adonis himself, sitting there in his shining glory. He was shirtless; his bare chest glimmered with slowly drying droplets of water. Small patches of dried mud spattered his well-built muscles. His jeans were caked with mud and were stained with a camouflaged rusty brown. A rumpled and blood encrusted shirt lay on the floor directly beneath his feet, probably where he had dropped it. Though his blue eyes brimmed with tears, it occurred to me then that I had never before seen him looking so rugged or handsome. Maybe clothes didn't make the man, like I had said so many years ago.

Jimmy slowly rose to his feet. His zombie like tread carried him to me at a snail's pace. He knelt down next to me and cupped my head in his hands. He held it there for some time affectionately before he unhurriedly pressed his forehead to mine. I could feel his body shaking in anticipation. His brilliant blue eyes searched my own. An emotion, one that I couldn't name, burned in his eyes. They looked as if they were gazing into heaven. Behind the whiskers on his face, his mouth curled into a rapturous smile that reminded me of the many times he had made some new scientific discovery when he was just a nerdy little boy. Tears streamed down both of our faces.

"I must be dreaming," I whispered ever so softly.

"I can assure you this isn't a phantasmagoria."

I closed my eyes in a lethargic blink and smirked. "Leave it to you to use big words on a girl who's barely conscious. You're lucky Sheen isn't around to hear you say that. Six syllable words are not his forte."

"Leave it to you to give me a good scolding upon waking."

He breathed a soft laugh. We sat, frozen in place, rememorizing each other's faces. After what seemed to be an eternity I spoke up again.

"Jimmy," I murmured. "You're in my bubble. Can I get up? Please?"

I threw him a quirky sideways grin. Impossible as it seemed, his smile grew wider as he released his grip on my face. His face slowly retreated from my own when he stood. I placed a hand on the cot underneath me and began to pull myself into a sitting position. I wobbled a bit and would have fallen back onto the bed had Jimmy not caught me. His strong arms steadied me while I pulled my feet out from underneath the blanket that had covered me. I gently swung them around and stretched my legs out off the side of the bed. I pitched forward and almost tumbled to the floor, but again Jimmy caught me before it was too late.

"Thanks," I mumbled blushing.

"How…" I paused uncertain on how to phrase my next question. "How long was I… gone?"

"Nearly 6 months. 5 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days to be exact," he whispered. He looked down as his face fell. He seemed ashamed of something.

"Strych" he choked on the name, "Strych sent his last letter approximately 4 months ago telling us that he was going to..." He stopped there unable to finish the sentence.

Four months. That meant I was four months pregnant. Calamitous had been killed three months ago and I had starved myself for two weeks before the doctors decided to take drastic measures to save the baby. I had been semi-conscious for two and a half months.

"I'm so sorry. I should have found you sooner. I misinterpreted what you said in the video. I thought you were telling me that it was me that had taken you. I assumed it was my clone. Then we got caught in a rift in the space-time continuum. This is entirely my fault. I'm so sorry."

Fresh tears fell from his eyes. Watching this broken man filled my eyes with sympathetic tears. Teardrops left muddy streaks down his cheeks.

"Shh" I admonished him. "Jimmy, it doesn't matter. You found me."

"You're… you're not going to yell at me?" his voice was dubious. He looked back up at me. His expression was quizzical.

"You came. You saved me. That's all that matters," I wiped the tears from my own cheeks and reached out for him.

His arms caught me up in a monumental embrace. My head lay on his chest and my arms snaked around his neck as I hung onto him. With his good arm, he rubbed my back. The two of us shook as our bodies forcefully expelled all the sorrow and misery that we had felt for the past 6 months. My eyes burned from the saline as he and I finally cried ourselves out. Still we clung to each other our chest's heaving with the effort that was involved. I hiccupped quietly.

Through my snuffly nose I caught a whiff of something awful. I don't know why I hadn't noticed earlier. It took a moment for me to realize the smell was coming from me.

"Um…" I mumbled.

I turned my face to look at him. Jimmy gazed down at me and I blushed. Something gleamed in his eyes that resembled the way that his father sometimes looked at his mother. It looked a lot like love, but then again maybe I was seeing too much into things.

"I think," I started. "I think I need to take a shower."

He raised a brow, forgetting that it was cut, and cringed when the pain registered.

"I wasn't going to say anything," he smiled. "Do you need help getting to the bathroom?"

"I'm not as feeble as I look!" I declared indignantly.

I pushed him lightly on his shoulder and was rewarded with another chuckle. He moved to the side and held out his arms indicating that I could hop down from the bed. I braced myself on the bed and mentally steeled myself for the task at hand. If his calculations were correct, and they typically were, then I hadn't been on my feet for at least three months. I hoped that I wouldn't make a fool of myself for turning down his aid. I lowered myself with some trepidation. The tips of my toes touched the cold ground and instantly recoiled. He laughed lightly.

"Shut it," I grumbled embarrassed.

Better prepared this time, I placed both feet directly onto the ground. My knees instantly buckled. Again, Jimmy managed to save me from falling on my face. I growled involuntarily, frustrated with my weakness. Jimmy adeptly scooped me up in his arms and proceeded to carry me to the bathroom.

"I don't need your help," I groused crossing my arms across my chest. "I could have made it there eventually."

"I know," he said. "I don't mind though," He flashed me a quick wink.

"Harumph," I muttered.

"There's a chair in there already. The shower's voice activated so you won't have to reach any of the levers. I'll leave some towels outside the door. I'm afraid you'll have to make due with an extra set of my clothes 'til everyone else gets back. Libby's supposed to be bringing back some of your clothes."

"Ok," I nodded as he set me down on the already wet metal chair.

"When'd you install this?" I asked.

"I wanted to be prepared for all eventualities, and we had to shower off Carl before they could take him to the hospital. He didn't wake up until the water turned on," he replied.

"Hospital?" I looked at him puzzled.

"I'll explain after you're done with your shower," he said turning his back to me. "I'm gonna go call Libby and let her know you're awake."

"K"

"Oh and if a-if you need any help getting dressed…" his voice trailed off and he looked at me suggestively.

"Oh get out!" I shouted, but my heart gave a little twitter.

He burst out laughing, but did as I had bid him and shut the door to the shower.

"Vox shower!" he called as he left.

Instantly warm water cascaded around me. I sighed and leaned into it, shrugging off the horrible hospital clothes that Eustace had confined me to. As I worked shampoo into my hair, I took stock of my body. There was a tiny bulge in my stomach where the baby was growing. Jimmy had mentioned a couple fractures in my hand. It was probably from the last time I had punched one of the doctors. A spot in one of my feet hurt more than I remembered. All of my muscles were atrophied from months of misuse and I had lost a lot of weight.

I tried to stand again. I placed my hands on either wall of the shower in case I fell. This time my feet held. They began trembling, however, after standing for just a few minutes, so I sat back down. The last thing I needed would be for Jimmy to hear me fall and come running to my aid while I was naked.

Over the sound of the running water I could hear Jimmy's voice as he spoke on the phone. He must have called Libby as soon as he knew I would be ok by myself.

"Cindy's ok, Libby. She just woke up. She's in shower now, so she'll need those clothes when you get back. How's Carl?"

Unfortunately I couldn't hear her answers. He opened the door to the bathroom again, probably to drop off the clothes and towels he had mentioned.

"Uh huh," he said. "I thought so. So there won't be any complications?"

There was another pause as Libby answered his question.

"I didn't think there would be. Just get back here as fast as you can."

She interrupted him.

"Yeah still her feisty self."

He stopped there and chuckled.

"Oh yeah, first words out her mouth were a slight towards my sanity…. No I don't think she's mad at me for not finding her sooner. I think Eustace was just bluffing about breaking her. I don't know what he's been doing to her though. I don't have the heart to ask."

I sighed again and finished rinsing my hair. Turning off the water I turned toward the door. I pushed it slightly with my hand and it sprung open quietly. Lying on the floor were a couple towels and some clothes, just like he had promised. I scooted myself closer to them and quickly dressed myself. It left me shaky and unsteady and I knew that there was no way that I would be able to make it out of the bathroom by myself.

"Jimmy?" I called trepidatiously, when I was fully clothed.

"Hold on Libby," I heard him say into the phone, "I think she's done with her shower."

The door to the bathroom opened and I smiled up at him from the floor. He grinned back at me and lifted me up. Jimmy carried me to the couch where we would wait for Libby to get back from the hospital.


	20. Mommy Dearest

Disclaimer: My birthday's coming up if anyone wants to get JN for me. Other than that I don't really own it…

A.N. Originally I intended this chapter to be shorter, but as per my usual, I got carried away… At one point I considered cutting it in half, but where would be the fun in that? Any who! I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Cindy's POV

For safety reasons I insisted that my return be kept secret. Libby had assured me that Eustace was gone, that she had seen him fall off the roof too, but Jimmy agreed with me for once in his life and asserted that it wouldn't be the first time one of his foes had lived through impossible circumstances. The only ones who really knew I was back were my parents, Jimmy's parents, and the four who had rescued me.

Jimmy had been forced to tell his parents when he came up to get me something to eat the night they found me. The absent-minded genius forgot that he was muddy and wounded until his mother nearly passed out from shock at the sight of him. By then his injuries had stopped bleeding, so it wasn't like he needed medical attention. They both insisted on seeing me and Jimmy was coerced into bringing me up from the lab. I had barely been able to make it up the stairs before my legs gave out on me. Thankfully Jimmy insisted that he walk behind me. It was his hand on my back that kept me from falling backward down the stairs.

By the time we made it into his house Mrs. Neutron had managed to make a huge meal that I couldn't finish on my own. Jimmy had polished off the last of my late night snack, assuring his mother that it was just the fading adrenaline that was making him hungry. Libby and Sheen had showed up near the end of the feast and Jimmy's mother had gone back to the kitchen to fetch more food. They must have stopped to change on their way back from the hospital for neither was as mud-strewn or grimy as Jimmy was.

"Cin…" Libby managed to choke out.

Tears streamed down her face as she ran to me. She threw herself at me on the couch. Neither of us could say anything for at least ten minutes as we hugged one another. When we released each other, I could see the guys hastily wiping moisture from their eyes as well. This brought an additional set of tears to my eyes to see Sheen cry over me. I swiftly wiped them away with the palm of my hand.

The three of them quickly filled me in on the events of my rescue, including Sheen's quick thinking that threw Eustace from the roof, and Carl's trip to the hospital. The former of which earned an endeared pat on the leg and kiss on the cheek from Libby. Turned out that Carl only had a concussion and the doctors believed Sheen and Libby's story that he had fallen off a ladder. Given the late hour though, the doctors insisted on keeping Carl for the night. Sometime during the conversation, Jimmy silently slipped away so that he could clean himself up.

When he returned, we migrated back down to the lab where Libby left some of my clothes that she had found lying around her apartment. I must have forgotten some the last time I had visited her. Jimmy was going to force me to spend the night in the lab, saying that it would freak out my mother to see me arrive back at my house close to one in the morning. Libby didn't seem too eager to leave either and Sheen, ever her shadow, decided that the two of them would accompany Jimmy and me in an impromptu sleepover.

Sheen threw himself down onto the loveseat that matched the living room set Jimmy had purchased in middle school and flipped on the television to wait for us. Once more in Jimmy's arms, I was deposited in the bathroom, where Libby had left the clothes. Libby trailed behind him and as he walked out of the room and shut the door, she gave me an appraising look. I peeled off his too big clothes and immediately began to dress myself. The baby, fortunately, wasn't too noticeable. I didn't know how I was going to explain that yet and I certainly wasn't prepared to do it now. Mercifully it was another savagery of Eustace's that caught her eye first.

"Girl, I can count your ribs," she whispered, appalled.

"I-I," I began to say. "I'll be alright." I assured her.

When I had finished dressing I stood on tottering legs. Libby opened the door, and I slowly made my way back over to the seating area of the lab. Jimmy rose from his seat on the couch where he had been talking to Sheen and dashed to my side. I waved him away and trudged on unsteady feet the rest of the way. Unceremoniously I plopped onto the couch. Libby took up her perch next to Sheen and nestled into his arms. He whispered something to her softly and she looked up at him forlornly. He gave her a sleepy smile and bent down to rub the tip of her nose with his. He sat playing lightly with her damp hair with one hand while the other lay across her shoulders on the back of the couch.

Jimmy hesitated for a moment before settling himself next to me on the couch. Though the day had been exhausting for the four of us, no one wanted to sleep. However, when the subject drifted to Sheen's attempt at breaking into my room, I felt my eyes drift close. I pulled my feet up underneath my body and unconsciously rested my head on Jimmy's chest. The last thing I remember was Jimmy quietly calling for Goddard to bring him a blanket and placing it gently around my shoulders while he rubbed my back. I may have imagined the small kiss I felt on my forehead.

The next day I awoke in Jimmy's arms. I sighed knowing going home was going to be another ordeal. I didn't know how Mother was going to take the news that I was back, and I certainly wasn't looking forward to explaining the pregnancy to her.

"Jimmy," I whispered.

I didn't want to wake Sheen or Libby who lay together on an air mattress that they must have pulled out after I was asleep. It was hard to see why I had any qualms with the two of them when they had started dating seeing them intertwined with each other like that. Sheen had a protective arm across Libby, who was curled up in a ball against his chest. Their faces were inches apart as if they had fallen asleep while whispering in hushed tones to one another. Their chests rose and fell in perfect synchronization. Both had relaxed smiles on their faces as though nothing could hurt them while they were together. It made my heart ache for the depth of their trusting bond.

"Jimmy," I breathed, nudging him with my elbow.

"No don't do it," he mumbled. I turned to get a better look at him. He was still asleep. He struggled wildly against some unseen foe, muttering while he slept. He pulled me closer; completely unaware that he was squashing all the air from my lungs. "Don't kill her you monster! I love her!"

"Jimmy," I prodded him again. "Jimmy wake up!"

His eyes flashed open. They scanned the room warily, while his arms constricted around me further. Finally his gaze turned to me. I raised an eyebrow and his face flushed as he realized our predicament.

"Sorry," he sputtered, coughing lightly. His face flushed an adorable shade of pink.

"S' ok," I patted his chest with one hand. "You sounded like you were having a bad dream. You were talking in your sleep."

He seemed taken aback as he helped me to my feet. I flashed him a quick wink as I headed for the stairs. He stood frozen in place for a second then scurried to my side.

"I was talking in my sleep?" his blush rose in intensity. "What did I say?"

"Oh nothing," I teased. I gave him a small smirk. "What were you dreaming about anyway?"

"Uh-um," he struggled to find the words for a moment. "I was- I-uh." He stopped unable to finish his thought.

"Ah. I see, Betty Quinlan again," I lampooned.

"You know Vortex, I've only had one girl on my mind for the last 6 months, and Betty Quinlan couldn't hold a candle to her," This time it was my turn to blush.

"Aw, aren't they cute?" I heard Sheen say to Libby and the two of us whirled around to see the two of them giggling discretely at us on their makeshift bed. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Jimmy's face turning a brighter shade of scarlet as well.

From the way the two of them lay on the bed it was apparent that they had been watching us for a while. Both had their heads propped up on their hands and were lying sprawled on their stomachs. I clenched my fist, but Libby beat me to the punch and pushed Sheen off the queen-sized mattress.

"Ow!" he called from the floor, "Why must the good get pushed off the bed?"

For good measure Libby chucked a couple pillows onto his head and rolled her eyes. Sheen poked his head up and looked at Jimmy and me for a brief moment, grinning widely before he began to barrage Libby with the same pillows she had just hurled at him. The two of them giggled again as their pillow fight intensified. Finally he dove on top of her and pinned both arms to the mattress. It was like they were the only ones in the room.

He slowly lowered his head towards hers and uttered in a deep voice, "Don't make me…"

"No! Sheen you wouldn't!" she shrieked.

She began to flounder uncontrollably, her feet kicking and flailing. He waggled his eyebrows at her and plinked a small kiss on her forehead.

"You're right, I wouldn't,"

He rolled off of her and they lay panting on the bed for a second before Libby's arm shot out and whacked him on the stomach.

"Why is it always you or Carl that has to ruin their good moments?" she muttered under her breath.

Shaking my head I turned back around to the daunting staircase that lay before me. My legs had cramped up during the night and the atrophied muscles already hurt from just walking to get to the bottom of the stairwell.

"You need me to carry you again?" Jimmy asked. His voice almost sounded hopeful. I would have accepted, but Sheen's snicker from behind us stopped me.

"Naw. I don't want that cut on your arm to open up again," I admitted grabbing onto his other arm. "Just make sure I don't fall."

He guided me up the stairs and out the lab. He paused just outside the entryway to the old clubhouse.

"You sure you don't want something to eat before you go over?" He looked down at me.

"Yeah I'm sure. I'd probably just throw it back up," I sheepishly confessed. "I don't know how Mother's gonna take this, and I'm a little…"

"Nervous?" he finished my sentence for me. I nodded my head. I heaved a great sigh before we crossed the street.

"The lab's always open if you need it, you know that," he whispered.

By then we had reached the door. Jimmy pulled my house key from a pocket. When I threw him a puzzled look, he shrugged his shoulders and muttered darkly about the night I had gone missing. I didn't push it further, not really wanting to relive those days. I stepped in front of him to unlock the door. It was almost eerie how nothing had changed in my house since I had left. Mother had always demanded order and tidiness, which was one of the things that drove my laid-back father crazy.

"Mom?" I called hesitantly from the entryway.

She should have been home. It was Sunday afternoon. Church would have been over by now and she had never been one to socialize with "lesser people" as she had once told me. I waved Jimmy in behind me, just in case. I tiptoed further down the hall and glanced into the great room.

"Mom?" I called a little louder.

I shot Jimmy a panicked look. What if Eustace hadn't been injured and made his way to my house thinking I would go there first? What if he had already gotten to her and was now torturing her instead of me?

"Who's there? I've got a gun!" I heard a familiar cold voice call from the top of the stairs.

"Mom?! It's me,"

"Cynthia?!" a glimmer of hope sounded in her lifeless voice.

There was a sudden rush of thudding footsteps as my mother threw herself down the stairs. It was the biggest display of emotions that I had seen from her since before the divorce.

"My Cynthia!" she shouted.

She turned the corner and stopped to appraise me. Her keen eye would normally have missed nothing, but thankfully I was wearing loose clothing. She must have noticed that Jimmy had followed me in, and felt that she was obligated to show some kind of physical contact to her one and only daughter because she quickly gave me a stiff hug. It was the first time I ever remember receiving any form of physical comfort from her. A garbled noise emanated from her mouth. Mother had realized that it was Jimmy standing in the shadows of the doorway.

Pushing me aside she rounded on Jimmy, "You!"

"No! Mom, you don't understand. He rescued me," I explained quickly, standing up for him.

"I don't care what he did. It's his fault that you went missing in the first place and I will not have him in this house another minute. I bid you good day sir. Now get the hell out of my house!" she shouted and pointed to the door, indicating that Jimmy should leave.

As he turned to leave, I bit back the moisture that flooded to my eyes. It would do no good to cry in front of my mother. Vortexes, no matter the circumstance, did not cry. It didn't help that moment the door closed I fell to the floor. My shrunken muscles had finally given way.

* * *

To say that everything went back to normal would be a complete lie. Everyone welcomed me back with open arms, even my mother. She even allowed me to move back in to the house with her, though it was incredibly awkward. I didn't know how I could explain my absence to her or anyone else that wasn't Jimmy or Libby. I hadn't even told them the whole story yet. They didn't push me though.

Libby knew from years of experience that eventually I would tell her, but that I had to come around on my own. It had taken me a long time to admit to having a crush on Jimmy, even though she claims she knew it from the beginning. This was something far more traumatic, and in her eyes, would possibly take me years to work through.

I think Jimmy felt guilty for the whole event, and so spent most of his time trying to make up for it in whatever ways he could. I kept trying to tell him that it was just as much my fault as it was his own and that I blamed neither of us for the insanity that Strych had inflicted, but as usual he didn't listen to me. Still it was nice to have his undivided attention.

Though my mother had discourteously banished him from the property indefinitely, it didn't keep Jimmy away while she was at work. Like clockwork he would show up each morning a half an hour after she had left for work with a bottle of water and a cheesy grin on his face.

Although she missed the baby, she had seen the frailty of my entire body, and so placed a strict regimented workout schedule that I was to follow everyday to get back into shape. It was almost like living with Eustace again, minus the fact that she didn't physically abuse me.

After Dad had left, my mom turned his old office into a small gym with everything that I would need to train for all the sports and after school activities she had made me join, so I wouldn't have to leave the house to train.

I didn't mind the exercise much. It gave me an excuse to wear sweats all the time to cover the baby's rapid growth. The nutrient rich meals mother made me eat combined with the exercise had made me gain back the weight I had lost. There was no doubt in my mind that she was healthy. I don't know if the comments that the doctors had made while I was semi-conscious were true, but I liked to believe that she was going to be a girl.

Every day Jimmy would watch my routine that consisted of methodical workouts to build my muscles back to what they once had been. He would only offer help if I asked for it, which in the beginning was more than I liked to admit. In the mornings I would work out in the home gym while he looked on and after Mother had gone to bed for the night I would secretly go out and swim. Some days Libby would come over sometime after my mother came home from work and the two of us would hang out, but with her new job DJ-ing for the local radio station, and her wedding looming on the horizon, her visits were usually pretty short.

* * *

"I don't know why you do this to yourself," Jimmy scolded me one day after a particularly exhausting hour on the treadmill.

"Because," I huffed and blew a strand of hair out of my face, "when Strych comes back, I'm going to be ready."

"Oh," His face darkened.

"Enough people I care about have been hurt by that blazer-wearing jerk, I won't see another one get hurt while I'm still capable," I added.

"Cindy would you let me worry about that? It's really me he wants," he told me.

"Yeah well, I don't see you doing anything to prepare yourself in case he does come back," I retaliated.

Instantly I regretted what I said. I could see the hurt register in his sapphire eyes when my words sunk in.

"Whatever," he said and he stormed from the room.

Was I never going to get anything right with that boy? Here he was trying to be nice to me, help me recover from my ordeal, and what do I do? Yell at him and accuse him of not doing anything to better prepare himself for the inevitable return of that villain.

"Crap! Jimmy, I'm sorry," I apologized chasing after him. "I didn't mean to bite your head off. My muscles really hurt today."

The door slammed and I knew he was gone.

"Mood swings don't help any either," I added to myself.

From past experience I knew there was no use chasing after him further. He would need time to calm down on his own, so I trudged back upstairs. I had just made it back upstairs and was just about to start to run through a set of taekwondo forms when the doorbell rang. There on the porch stood Jimmy, in sweats similar to my own.

"You're right," he said, "I do need to be more prepared. Teach me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope."

I giggled and pulled him back into the house. From that day on, in addition to the schedule my mother created, I had Jimmy practice sparring against a punching bag. I told him that he needed to train with it till he could spar against me without getting his butt kicked, prepping for anything Strych might throw at us. Truth be told I didn't want him accidentally hit me in the abdomen and possibly hurt the baby.

Things continued like that for a couple weeks until Mother did something unusual. My whole life had been routine, never differentiating from a schedule, so her taking off early from work one Friday never crossed my mind until she walked in on Jimmy and I taking a well-deserved rest from our daily exercise session. I had been planning to spend the weekend at Libby's to help her with wedding plans and had that day been able to complete some of the harder taekwondo forms without shaking, so the two of us were celebrating by watching a movie.

"Get out!" she had shrieked.

Jimmy didn't have to be told twice before he left. He admitted to me some days earlier that he had tried to be nice to her when I was gone, but she wouldn't have anything to do with him.

After he had left, she glared at me and snarled, "I'll forgive you this one time."

"Whatever" I mumbled. I rolled my eyes and walked to my room. I was so irritated that I decided to take a swim about an hour before Libby was supposed to show up. She had me so flustered that I forgot that by now my stomach had now grown to the size that there would be no way to hide the fact that I was pregnant in a swimsuit. As I walked past her headed for the pool, her head shot up. I nearly jumped out of my skin when she exploded at me.

"So this is your secret?! Why you left me for months with no word as to your whereabouts?! You had me worried out of my mind while you shacked up with that Neutron boy?! Or was it some other low life?!"

"Mom! I-I-I-I-I can explain!"

"I don't want to hear it! How could you do this to me? To the Vortex name?" she sobbed.

"Could you let me explain?! I didn't exactly ask for this," I felt the anger rising inside me as she continued to yell at me.

"No, I won't hear of it. Get out!"

"Where am I supposed to go?"

"I don't care. Go to your boyfriend's house for all I care. Just take your things and leave. I never want to see you again."

"But-but," I finally had enough of her ranting, "you can't do this to me. I'm your daughter!"

"I have no daughter." Her eyes were icy and her voice dripped with what I could only call loathing.

I ran back up to my room, furious tears streaming down my face. I quickly pulled on some clothes and stuffed even more into my overnight bag that I had packed earlier that morning.

I stopped at my jewelry box reaching for my favorite necklace, only to realize it wasn't there. It hadn't occurred to me until then that I had been wearing the pearl necklace the night Eustace kidnapped me. Like the rest of the clothes I was wearing that night it was long gone.

Finally I grabbed my cell phone and strode angrily from the house. I dialed Libby's number and spoke rapidly into the phone.

"Libbs, change of plans. Can you come get me now? Please?"

* * *

A.N. I know! Cindy's mom is super harsh! What's she going to do, poor girl? She just can't catch a break can she? *Evil snickers* Just wait until you read what's coming up in the next chapters. Bwahahaha!

Oh and I know that's not the correct line from Star Wars, but my version fits better into the story.


	21. Protons and Neutrons

Disclaimer: I wish I owned something as cool as Jimmy Neutron.

A.N. I normally never dedicate a chapter to anyone but this chapter is dedicated to jediguru who inspired the whole Cindy's recovery from Jimmy's POV idea. I hadn't given it much thought until you brought it up, and the more I thought about it the more it developed into well….

This….

Anyway it starts after Cindy's back and living with her mother, but before their argument in the previous chapter.

* * *

Jimmy's POV

It was a reoccurring nightmare that brought me to Cindy's house every day. I knew from her mother's past actions that I wasn't allowed within a fifty-foot radius while she was there, but keeping me away from Cindy, now that we had found her, would be like separating protons and neutrons. Her mother left the house at exactly 8:30 each morning. Allowing for the travel time to her office building, just in case she accidentally forgot something at home, I snuck across the street and knocked on Cindy's door at 9 o'clock sharp. It was well worth it to see a beguiling Cindy peer up at me, sleepy eyed, exquisite blonde hair still tousled from sleep in the same grey sweats day after day. It assuaged my fears that built during the night. Each minute with her made the hole in my heart ache a little less. Still the pain never fully went away. I couldn't put my finger on why though.

The dream that had begun the night we found her alive and whole plagued me the moment I slipped into unconsciousness each night. The location was in a constant state of flux, changing between every place that had been important in our friendship. The island, Mars, the park where I found her, the lab, Strych's rooftop, aboard our thrill ride rockets in space, the alley where we shared our only kiss, all flashed around us in a myriad of hues and shades.

Each time I would stand transfixed as Strych held her in his arms. The weapon changed each time as well, but always I was forced to watch the horror on her face as he lowered it to her neck. It was the look in her eyes that killed me each time. The utter helplessness and defeat that registered there in her face broke me, piercing my heart.

"No don't do it! Don't kill her you monster! I love her! Take me instead! Please?!" I would hear my dream self implore for him to spare her life.

Just before plunging the weapon into her, he looked up at me, and smirked. It was a smirk I had seen on his face many times before and it filled me with terror. At the last moment he lowered the blade to her stomach. Then he would stab her once in the abdomen, as though to cause the most pain possible, and finally thrust the weapon into her neck. Strych would throw her to the ground and disappear into the shadows, dissolving into the nothing that he truly was.

My body would unfreeze at this point and I'd run to her side. I tried my best to staunch the blood that flowed from her two wounds. She struggled for breath as she slowly bled out.

"Noooooo!!!!" I screamed into the perpetually changing sky.

"Cindy," I gasped, "Cindy I love you. I'm so sorry. I love you. Please don't die."

Blood seeping from her mouth, she reached for my face with her hand. When it faltered, I would grab it and press it to my tear streaked face. She whispered to me in a voice so faint that even in my dream I had to endeavor to hear it, "Jimmy, I l-l-l-lo," but could never complete her dying sentence before I would see the spark fade from her eyes.

Each night I awoke crying, gasping for breath in my bed, only to realize it was only a dream. The fear lied close to my heart though until I could see her again. I couldn't resist going check to make sure that she was ok each morning.

* * *

Little by little, as she slowly recovered, she revealed to me what happened to her. It was so hard watching her at first as she struggled to cope with her impaired body. Seeing the once strong Cindy Vortex now struggle with the weakness of a day old kitten was worse than any physical injury I could have sustained. Cindy assured me constantly that it was just the sedatives his minions had issued to her and the following paralysis that deteriorated her physical strength; that there wasn't anything else wrong with her body, save being incredibly weak.

At first the muscles in her legs were so weak that standing for brief periods of time no longer than ten minutes would cause them to cramp so badly that she couldn't fend off the tears of pain that sprung to her eyes. Each time she apologized profusely for showing her vulnerability, but I always brushed aside her apology.

"Cindy," I said one day while I was carrying her down the stairs to her living room, "You didn't do this to yourself. Stop apologizing like it's your fault."

I carefully set her down on the loveseat in front of her television. I had already picked out a movie for us to watch and popped some popcorn.

"But if I'd…" she started to say.

"Nope. Don't want to hear it, Vortex," I called from her kitchen as I went to retrieve the popcorn from the microwave.

Cindy was constantly berating herself for not being more prepared the night she was taken. She seemed to be convinced that if she had trained harder, been at a different angle when he grabbed her, that it would have saved us 6 months of misery. Personally I didn't think anything could have prevented the events of that night from happening. But if I could have gotten away with it, I would have locked her in my lab myself to keep her safe.

Setting the bowl on the table in front of the sofa, I flopped down next to her and pushed a button on the remote to start the movie. While the previews played, she winced as another muscle locked up. She mashed her palms into her eyes to stem back tears that would soon follow.

"Come here," I said swinging her feet around to lie in my lap.

Her eyes were wide and her face flushed an enchanting shade of ruby as I rolled up each of her pant legs.

"What-what are you doing?!" she demanded in a higher register than I had ever heard her use before.

She reached to pull them back down, but I stopped her hands.

"This works better if your clothes aren't in the way."

I halted when I realized that my comment could be construed in another way. I felt my brow furrow as I grimaced at the carelessness of my words. I mentally kicked myself for a moment.

"Deep tissue massage," I shook my head and cleared my throat. "I've been researching different forms of physical therapy, and this one seems like the best way to help alleviate the pain you're in."

She looked at me skeptically for a moment. I felt a rush of heat flow to my face as I blushed.

"It's worth a try?" I shot her a hopeful look.

She rolled her eyes and waved her hand at me.

"Alright mister, but if you try anything funny…" she let the threat hang in the air.

"Scouts honor," I said, crossing my heart with my hand.

"You weren't ever a scout," she shot me a fake scowl.

"Was too."

"Were not."

"Was too."

"Were not!"

"Was too!"

"Oh yeah?" she scoffed, "For how long?"

"Five minutes," I admitted ruefully. "One of my experiments went a little awry and… Well, let's just say there's a Scout Master out there somewhere who thinks he's a squirrel."

She laughed and leaned her head back to rest on the arm of the couch. I could feel the nerves spasming in her legs as I kneaded the muscles. Slowly, as the movie continued and she unwound, they began to relax and I could see the relief wash across her face as the pain ebbed away. She looked so beautiful and peaceful sitting there that I got caught up in staring at her.

'_Focus Neutron focus!'_ I reprimanded myself when I realized that I had missed a third of the movie already.

I tried to throw myself into the rest of the movie, but I kept glancing at her out of the corner of my eye. Her eyes were closed and a contented smile rested on her face. Not for the first time, I wished that I had the nerve to tell her how I felt. Sure I could face down any number of criminal masterminds bent on my destruction, but the thought of telling the alluring girl next to me that I was madly in love with her made me quake in my shoes. I was just about to force myself to turn my attention back to the video when she made a noise that reminded me of a cat's purr. I bit back a laugh. Cindy opened one eye slowly to scowl at me.

"Shove it boy genius," she muttered unenthusiastically and closed her eyes again sighing faintly.

"It's helping isn't it?" I asked.

"Mmmhmmm" she nodded slightly. Her head barely moved, but her smile grew wider.

The credits began to roll. I stood and placed her feet gently on the seat where I had been sitting. After I pulled the DVD from the player, I turned to her and held up two new movies that I had brought over from my house for us to watch.

"Comedy or action?"

"Both,"

I shrugged and put in the first disk I had picked up. I walked back over to my spot and resumed massaging her legs. This time I was determined to not spend the time goggling at Cindy and actually watch the movie. It was some old action movie that my mom had picked up a few years back. Mom and Dad had raved about it, but the special effects were super cheesy and fake. Something about how awful the movie truly was brought a smile to both of our faces as the horrendous plot worsened.

"Hey," she said after a time. "How's your arm healing?"

"Oh, that. It's pretty much healed now. No complications. It's gonna leave a wicked scar though,"

"Really? Let me see," she sat up and grabbed my arm.

I felt a tingle briefly shoot up my arm as she shoved the sleeves of the shirt I was wearing further up my bicep to get a good look. She hadn't really ever seen it. There was always a bandage on top of it while it the scab was there and afterwards I adopted longer sleeves to cover the wound. Cindy didn't need another reminder of the severity of the battle for her life. I think that was why she wore a long sleeved hoodie everyday as well; to cover the scars her shackles had left on her wrists. It still freaked out my mom to see the scar as well. I hadn't paid much attention to it once the stitches had been removed and the itching stopped.

"Oh geez, Jim," her voice was a surprisingly soft whisper.

Looking down then I could see how it bad it really had been. The scab had finally healed and the new skin that replaced it was a bright red-purple tint and stretched taunt across the width of my arm. Cindy ran a soft finger over it, tracing a gentle path over the place where Strych's sword had torn into me, and I involuntarily shivered. A solitary tear slipped down her face as she took in the damage.

'_Great! Now I'm making her cry!' _I thought.

"It's fine," I told her in a gruff voice. I roughly pulled the clothing back down to cover the injury. "I've had worse."

"No you haven't." she shook her head.

"It doesn't matter. I can live with this. The alternative…" I gulped.

Neither of us said anything more as we allowed ourselves to get caught up in our own thoughts. The alternative to my wound was Cindy's death. There would be no way that I could live with myself if she died.

* * *

Part of me worried that I would outlive my tenuous welcome at Cindy's place, but Libby constantly assured me that I was doing the right thing. She called me one night to arrange Sheen's surprise bachelor/bachelorette party. She was convinced that, if left to his own devices, he would come home with yet another tattoo, or worse, some sort of weird piercing that would show in the wedding photos. Libby figured that if we did something together then she would be able to keep an eye on him. It concerned me that Cindy was going to be out in public, but Libby waved aside my fears saying that we were going to be miles away from Retroville and it would be so poorly lit that no one would recognize her. So Libby, Cindy, and I were planning to take him out to a club the week before the wedding. We weren't planning on telling Carl until after we picked Sheen up. Carl could never keep a secret. Poor guy wouldn't know what hit him and neither would Sheen.

"You're sure?" I asked for the millionth time.

"Yeah Jimmy," Libby told me. "I can always tell when you've been there. She pretty much hates to see the weekend come and has to spend two days alone with her mega jerk mother."

I had already left for the night and was peering through the curtains of my house out the window. Libby had called on her way to work and I was trying to ascertain if Cindy had mentioned anything about getting sick of me.

"Really?"

"Yes really!" she sighed exasperated with me.

"Honestly sometimes you two…" she paused.

"The two of us what?" I responded.

"Nothing. Anyway, it's doin' the both of you good. You know what I don't understand though?"

"No, what?"

"Why you won't just tell her already. Boy, I've known longer than I knew I liked Sheen that you two were meant to be together. Sometimes I get so frustrated I wanna just smack the back of that oversized head of yours and make the words spill outta your mouth for you."

"He he," I laughed skittishly and quickly changed the topic back to the party.

Though Libby knew how I really felt about Cindy, she wouldn't go behind my back to tell her. She knew I was waiting for the right time to tell her. A guy couldn't just walk up to a girl moments after rescuing her from the arms of a sociopath and declare his undying love for her. Life just didn't work that way.

* * *

A couple weeks later I was standing in Cindy's home gym as usual, waiting for her to finish yet another workout, the longest yet.

"I don't know why you do this to yourself," I lamented to her for the third time that day as I watched her tremble.

"Because when Strych comes back, I'm going to be ready," she growled at me.

"Oh," I should have known that would be her answer. It was always her answer.

"Enough people I care about have been hurt by that blazer-wearing jerk, I won't see another one get hurt while I'm still capable," her eyes blazed with the passion that reminded me of why I loved her.

"Cindy would you let me worry about that? It's really me he wants."

I was sick of her shouldering such a huge responsibility onto herself. This whole mess was my fault. If I hadn't pissed him off when we were kids…

"Yeah well, I don't see you doing anything to prepare yourself in case he does come back," her voice interrupted my thoughts.

It was a low blow and she knew it, but as the words sunk in I knew she was right. I hadn't ever really cared about my physique before and now I had become so focused on helping her recover I had paid no attention to my own physical state. Eustace had almost beaten me once. The next time, if I continued to do nothing, may be the last time I faced any villain.

"Whatever," I said disgusted with myself.

"Crap! Jimmy, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bite your head off. My muscles really hurt today."

She attempted to follow me out, but her already exhausted legs could only carry her so far before I had made it out of the house. I shut the door, albeit a little harder than I intended. I mentally kicked myself repeatedly as I marched back to my house. In my room I jerked open the bureau that held some of my older clothes. Rummaging around for a few moments I found what I was looking for and hastily dressed myself. I stomped back to Cindy's house and rang the doorbell.

"You're right," I admitted. "I do need to be more prepared. Teach me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope."

She kicked my butt into gear that day. The summer she had taught me the punch I had used on Eustace seemed like a cakewalk compared to the following weeks. I trained harder than I ever had. Still it terrified me to think that he could have shown up any time during her recovery to finish us both off.

Each night, just before her mother came home, I bid her good night and sweet dreams, knowing that Strych may still be lurking somewhere out there, biding his time, waiting for us to become complacent.

* * *

A.N. Whew! Now we all know what's up with Jimmy. Again thanks jediguru for inspiring this chapter.


	22. That's What Friends Are For

Disclaimer: *Turns around and whispers to her lawyers* Do I have to? *After listening about as well as Sheen in any given episode to their response finally grumbles* Ok fine. I don't own Jimmy Neutron in any way shape or form. Ok I told them! Are you happy now? *Walks off disgusted*

* * *

Cindy's POV

I stood in the sweltering Texas heat on the curb in front of my childhood home, now my former home. I had just hung up with my best friend, who was on her way to pick me up for what she thought was a weekend girl's only sleepover. Libby was ten minutes out from my location and I had nowhere else to go. Jimmy knew I wasn't allowed to see him anymore, so I couldn't randomly show up at his house. Instead I paced the boiling pavement of the sidewalk that divided the lawn from the street.

"Crap, crap, crap! I'm gonna have to tell her," I muttered under my breath as I paced.

I had been hoping to buy more time before I had to tell anyone about the baby, especially the part about it being Jimmy's. The next dress fitting for Sheen and Libby's wedding wasn't for another couple days and I was planning on using that time to think of some way to tell Libby, so that she wouldn't freak out. The tailor had missed my tummy at the last fitting. I still hadn't figured out how I was going to explain it to her, or to anyone else for that matter. If I were being honest I would have said that I feared my friends reactions more than my mothers. Mother's was typical. She jumped to conclusions and threw me out, leaving me homeless, unemployed, and 5 months pregnant. I didn't want to take a chance on how Jimmy and Libby would respond to the news. The heat and my warm-ups were not helping my mood.

"Cindy?" I heard a man's voice call from across the street.

"Crap!" I swore once again softly, wincing lightly. I added in a louder voice, "Hey Jimmy!"

His head poked out his front door. The moment I acknowledged him, he ran across the street to my side. He warily scanned the neighborhood for signs of trouble with a squinty-eyed glare. A car passed and one of the neighbor's cats ambled across the yard into a nearby stand of bushes, but there was no other sign of life on the arid day.

"What are you doing out?" he asked absently combing his fingers through his unkempt hair.

"I-uh, I'm waiting for Libby. I decided to start the weekend early since mom did too," I hastily spat out, hoping he hadn't noticed the hesitation or that my eyes were slightly red from crying. "I can't stand her sometimes. I'm sorry about her actions earlier. Anyway how'd you see me out here? Have you been watching my house?" I quickly changed the subject before I accidentally revealed anything more than I wanted.

He inhaled, shocked, and began to cough hard. He bent over and grasped his knees as his lungs continued to spasm.

"Ah" he sputtered. His face flushed, whether from the choking or from embarrassment I couldn't tell. Jimmy finally caught his breath and peered up at me from where he still stood hunched over. "Yeah, I was," he admitted uncomfortably as he straightened himself.

"How long?" I put my hands on my hips.

"How long what? Have I been watching? Pretty much every day after I leave and your mom gets home till you turn off your light for the night. Makes for a lot of late nights, but gotta keep a constant vigilance on you, Vortex," he winked at me.

"Uh, I actually meant how long have you been watching today, but thanks," I blushed and smiled up at him from underneath my lashes.

A couple weeks before he had shaved the mess of a beard that grew in during my absence. It wasn't until after I got in a couple good shots about him looking like a hobo and crazy Louie the vagrant with his long messy hair and Grizzly Adams beard that he finally conceded my point and reverted back to his old look. Today however the auburn stubble that graced his chin and cheeks made it apparent that he hadn't shaved since at least yesterday. It added to the shadows under his eyes making him look worn and older than his years. I desperately wanted to reach up and smooth away the dark, tired circles around his beautiful blue eyes, but some unseen force kept my hands locked at my sides. Still the hesitation didn't keep my fingers from twitching as I stared up at him. We stood gazes interlocked until a car horn sounded, breaking us out of our reverie. Looking to the street I immediately recognized the driver. I waved at Libby and reached for my bags, only to find that Jimmy had beat me to them. He quickly shouldered my backpack and duffle bag.

"Sheesh you pack your entire wardrobe, Vortex?" he grumbled under the weight.

I forced a laugh and walked to open the car door for him.

"I'm a girl. Remember?" I quickly covered.

"As if I could ever forget that," he gave me a quirky smile as he threw my bags into the back seat.

I turned to see him standing just to one side of me, his arms open wide for a hug. I quickly returned the embrace. I didn't know when the next time I would see him and the thought made me miss him already. I wanted to stand there forever memorizing his face, his smell, how it felt to hug him, but Libby was watching, so I gave him the briefest of hugs.

"Get some sleep, silly. I'll be fine," I told him and before he completely released me, I playfully ruffled his hair.

Libby shot me a weird look, but I ignored her. I climbed into the cool air-conditioned climate of her car and rolled down the window.

"Hey Neutron!" I called as though an afterthought through the window, "Just cause I'm gone doesn't mean you can slack off. You still gotta work on that weak left side of yours!"

His smile grew wider while he returned my wave and walked back across the street to his house. I sighed wistfully and turned back around in my seat. The window automatically rolled back up as Libby pushed the button on her side of the car. I wrapped my arms tightly around my chest and leaned my head against the cold glass of the window. A hodgepodge of emotions rolled through my mind as I played back the last hour of my life in my head. I must have sighed again because she gave me a sidelong glance that instantly brought up red flags in my mind. I knew I was in for a good long lecture, but the silence remained unbroken until we pulled into her apartment complex.

Putting her car in park, she turned to me, "Alright girl, spill. What's up between you and Jimmy? You sounded upset on the phone and now I pull up and you're makin' goo-goo faces with him? What's goin' on?"

"Nothing's up between me and Jimmy," I retorted melancholy.

"Uh huh," she raised a brow at me skeptically. Something about my face must have told her there was another thing wrong because she cautiously asked, "What is goin' on? You sounded like you were cryin' when you called."

"Well, I…" my face twisted into a grimace. "My mom kicked me out."

"She what?!"

"She came home early today and caught me and Jimmy watching a movie on the couch and she flipped out at him and told him to leave and…"

"Wait," she interrupted me, "Your momma kicked you to the curb for hangnin' with Jimmy? Dang girl, I always knew the woman was harsh, but that's seriously messed up."

Sometimes it was a good thing that Libby always jumped to conclusions. I would let her think that my mother had kicked me out for having Jimmy over until I could find a way to tell her about the baby. It gave me a better excuse than any thing else I could have come up with.

"Do you think I could stay with you for a while? You know while I get back on my feet?" I asked her.

"Stay as long as you like," she reached across the car to squeeze me tightly.

"Now let's stop talking about how crappy my life is," I demanded reaching behind me for my stuff. "Let's get to work on your wedding…."

_

* * *

A couple hours later._

"Purple?!" I gasped in horror.

"Not just any purple," Libby groaned into her hands. "Ultra Lord purple."

"You're kidding right? Please tell me you're just joking,"

"I wish I was. I wanted to go with a nice pale lavender, but Sheen put his foot down. Either the bridesmaid's dresses were Ultra Lord purple or he'd make me walk down the aisle to the Ultra Lord theme song," she rubbed her face with her hands.

I giggled and replied, "The lesser of two evils I think."

She groaned and added, "That shade of purple will bring out your eyes though, and hey at least you'll look hot in your dress. Ya know, to impress Jimmy."

I pitched a throw pillow at her. We were sprawled in her living room, combing through bridal magazines looking for inspiration for original ideas to add to Libby's wedding. Her mp3 player played softly in the background, running through songs she was considering for the reception. Magazines, invitation samples, and swatches of various colored material were strewn about the room. Somewhere amongst the mess there was a large vegetarian pizza roaming about. Always the organized one of the two of us, a yellow pad of notebook paper filled with lists of ideas lay in front of me. Many were crossed out as the night wore on. She already had most of the wedding planned already. Given the wait that they endured searching for me, Sheen had encouraged Libby to push the wedding date up. The wedding date was set for seven weeks from now. I think Sheen was more eager about starting married life than Libby was. It probably had something to do with his ADHD.

"I told ya Sheen asked Jimmy to be the best man, didn't I? That means you two get to walk down the aisle together…" she laughed as I threw another pillow at her.

To save money Libby had decided to keep the wedding small, including the wedding party. Carl and Jimmy would be Sheen's groomsmen, and Sheen's little sister and I would be bridesmaids. She had been giving me a hard time about Jimmy all night, not that I minded all that much. It kept the subject on a topic that was easier to discuss than the myriad of things that had happened to me. We spent most of the evening in fits of giggles discussing various preposterous things that she would have to worry about happening at the wedding. Most involved inventions of Jimmy's that could possibly go haywire or random things she would have to keep Sheen from doing. It felt good to relax with my best friend and to know that though we had been separated for such a long time that nothing had really changed between the two of us. My relationship with Jimmy was a different story.

"Did I show you the picture of the tux's the guys are getting?" she asked interrupting my train of though.

Groaning, I shook my head, and dragged myself over to where she was sitting. She pointed to a picture in one of the magazines. The photograph showed a group of semi-attractive men posing like they were having the time of their lives. Each one was adorned with a long silken striped necktie and a matching thinly striped vest.

"It's almost like this, except purple and black,"

"They'll look good in that," I murmured thinking about the last time I had seen Jimmy in a tuxedo.

The shrill ringing of her cell phone broke me out of my momentary preoccupation. I glanced down at her phone before she grabbed it and read the caller id. I should have known by the ringtone who was calling, the Ultra Lord theme song, Sheen of course. Libby's face lit up like a kid at Christmas.

"Sheeny!" she gasped into the phone.

"Sheeny?" I looked at her like she was crazy.

She stuck her tongue out at me and returned her attention back to Sheen. I rolled my eyes knowing that it would be a while before I had Libby's full attention again. I groaned and pushed myself up from the floor. Now was as good a time as any for me to finally clean up after my day. I motioned to her and told her my plans. She waved a hand, dismissing me.

I walked to her room and grabbed a change of clothes from my bag, another set of too big sweats. Stopping at the linen closet I collected one of her fluffy towels from the shelf. When I turned on the water to her shower, I felt something altogether peculiar in my middle. I immediately dismissed it as my body digesting dinner. The sensation repeated itself as I shampooed my hair. When I realized what the feeling was, I went rigid and dropped the bottle. It crashed to the tile with a loud wet thud. It was the baby. I could feel her moving around inside me. My surprised hands bolted to cradle my abdomen. I began to hum a soft lullaby to myself and smiling, finished my shower. Redressed and towel drying my wet hair, I padded back out into the living room with what was probably a big goofy grin on my face.

"Well then you're gonna have t' tell them to reschedule..." she demanded. "What do you mean they can't? Fine, we'll just have to move the date." Libby snapped her cell phone closed.

"Did I miss something?" I asked my smile vanishing. I had never heard Libby so pissed, not even when Sheen had tripped at prom and sent her flying into a table of food. What had Sheen said to her to make her this angry?

"Not much, just that I have to change all my plans. The church we booked three months ago called right after I got off the phone with Sheen. They double booked us with some kids bar mitzvah. Sheen's great-grandma was going to fly in from Mexico and everything," she growled in agitation and clenched the phone in her hands, knuckles white.

"Ok. So do it the next day then," I looked at her cautiously. Nothing ever really riled Libby up. She was the calmest person I knew.

"They're booked through next year with events, and only have two dates available," she spoke through clenched teeth.

I gave her a look that told her to go on.

"Both are at least a month out from when we had planned it originally. One's the first week in August and the other's the last week in September,"

Dropping the towel in my hand, I sat down on the couch in a huff. September… September…. Something about September rang a bell… I quickly did the mental calculations. The baby was due in September. There would be no way that I could be a bridesmaid if she was going to be getting married in September. I wouldn't be able to balance a baby and being the maid of honor, and what if I hadn't given birth yet, there's no way that I would be capable of handling the stress. I might go into labor during the wedding and ruin the whole thing.

Panic shot across my face as I hastily bust out louder than necessary, "August! Go with August!"

She was taken aback at my sudden increase in volume, "Why are you so eager for August?" She looked at me confused.

"I-I," my face flushed, " if it-if it's in September… I-I may not be able to make it to the wedding…"

"Why? You got some big trip planned you haven't told anyone about?" a dubious brow shot up on her face.

"I-I may be in the hospital," I answered truthfully, hoping in vain that she would drop the subject.

"Really?" the brow reached higher until it threatened to completely disappear into her hairline. "How come?"

I mentally swore at my own stupidity, "I-I-I may be in the hospital because, well…" I stalled for time.

"Just come out with it,"

"I-I-I'm pregnant. That's the real reason my mom kicked me out of the house, not because Jimmy was over when she got home. I was gonna tell you, I promise. I just couldn't think of a way to tell you without you freaking out," I blurted out burying my face in my hands.

I felt thick tears pour down my face. Her mouth popped open with an audible snap and I heard her flump down onto the floor. I looked up at her. Libby's mouth made a perfect O while she thought things through. I don't know what I thought her reaction would have been, but it wasn't what I got.

"Girl, you did not sleep with Eustace to keep yourself alive,"

"No…" I started to say

"You were raped?" her face paled and she looked like she was ready to throw up.

"No! No Calamitous…"

"Strych made you get it on with that old dude! I knew he was depraved, but… Gah no wonder you didn't say anything!" she interrupted.

"LIBBY!" I yelled at her. I threw my hands in the air in frustration, "I'M STILL A VIRGIN! Let me finish a sentence will ya? I didn't sleep with anyone."

I quickly and tearfully explained the whole ordeal to her. From the way she remained frozen on the ground, I knew she wouldn't be able to deal with the full story and she would probably lose it if I told her. Instead I gave her the cut and dry version; Strych's father's will, the baby and the fitness tests, my struggles to free myself, Calamitous trying to rescue the two of us, Calamitous' revelation about the baby not being Strych's, our recapture and Calamitous' death, all spilled out of my mouth. I didn't tell her how I had felt at the time, but I was sure that she could guess. Libby was the only one who seemed to be able to tell my real feelings about any given subject no matter what emotional mask I donned. We liked to call it BFF-ESP.

"So who's the father?" she asked softly when I had finished. She walked to my side and sat next to me. Libby put an arm around my shoulder and brushed back a damp lock of hair away from my face.

"Jimmy," I whispered and hung my head again.

"How?" her voice was startled.

"Calamitous stole some of Jimmy's DNA from the Yolkians. He couldn't bring himself to inflict _that_ on me," I shuddered at the thought.

"He's the one that sent Jimmy the email that had the blueprints to Eustace's fort. He's the reason that we found you when we did," she told me.

"I owe him my life," I whispered reverently.

"Does… Does Jimmy know?" she asked a minute later.

"No," I shook my head. "How can I tell him? Who in their right mind would believe that story anyway? He wasn't there when Calamitous told me. He may think that it's just another lie that Eustace told me to keep me from harming whatever creature he would spawn."

Tears cascaded down my face obscuring my vision again. I don't think I had ever cried so much in my life.

"Ch! I believe you. He's gonna believe you. He's completely head over heels for you anyway. You didn't have to deal with him for the last 6 months. Girl, I ain't ever seen Jimmy that messed up in my life," she shook her head at the memories.

"Really?" I hiccupped, slightly hopeful.

"Uh huh. He didn't come out of the lab for nearly a week after we got back from the Evil Jimmy's and we found out that we had missed an entire three months worth of savin' you. I had t' have Sheen break out the bag o' hair just to talk to him. When we got to him, he hadn't moved since we left him, 'cept to look at that picture of the two of you on your 16th, which you never mentioned that you kissed him by the way," she folded her arms across her chest indignantly.

"But the baby," I moaned.

"But nothing. You think he's gonna care bout that? Girl that boy's practically been screamin' 'I love you' since you came back. The words are sitting there like a bomb just waiting to explode. He's just too scared to say the words. Like someone else I know," she nudged me with her elbow.

"Maybe…" I wasn't convinced.

"The two of you were meant to be together. Cin, you're gonna have t' give in to love or live in fear, and last time I checked the Cindy Vortex I knew and loved wasn't afraid of anything," she had a gleam in her eye.

"Leave it to you to use song lyrics to give me the best advice," I groused and rolled my eyes at her. "Your right," I conceded. "I do need to tell him."

"Tonight," she commanded standing up quickly.

"Tonight?" I furrowed my brow. I wasn't expecting it to be so soon. I glanced at the clock. It was only 7, so he would probably still be awake.

"Yes tonight, before you have time to chicken out."

"I will not chicken out!" She smirked at me knowing that she had hit a nerve with the chickening out comment. "Fine tonight."

"Now," she said pulling me to my feet and giggling madly. "What are you going to wear when you tell him?"

She dragged me to her room and walked over to the closet. I plopped down on her bed and waited for her to finish going through the clothes. Libby loved dressing me up sometimes and had some of the best clothes around. Her mother had spent vast amounts of money on her wardrobe and she always gladly shared it with me. As a housewarming gift Jimmy had given Libby an invention that expanded her closet so that it was big enough to hold the extensive array of clothing she had purchased over the years. She pulled from the closet several frilly and tight fitting shirts that would look ridiculous on my pregnant belly. Each one she tossed lightly on the bed next to me.

"Libby, I can't wear those," I gave her a blank stare.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Hello!" I waved at her. "Pregnant?"

"But you're not showing or anything. You can fit in those,"

I shook my head at her and slowly lifted the bottom of my shirt to show her my protruding belly. It wasn't very big, but I was obviously pregnant and the shirts she had picked out would have only fit the top part of my torso.

"Yeah I'm _so_ walking up to Jimmy's house with this sticking out for everyone and their mother to see. It'd be so obvious that Sheen and Carl wouldn't miss it. I've been wearing sweats for a reason Libbs,"

"Oh," her eyes widened in shock and she ran to my side. It must have finally sunk in seeing my stomach for the first time. "Can I feel?" she asked excitedly. The bed bounced up and down with her enthusiasm.

"Yeah," I sighed.

She gently placed her hand on my stomach at the same time that the baby moved again. Libby gave a small squeal.

"You're gonna be a mommy!"

She sounded exactly like she had when we got our Twonkies from Carl in grade school. I smiled and shook my head at her.

"For a moment there I wondered what happened to my best friend, but I then I realize I already know the answer," I told her, "Too many years of dating a hyperactive Mexican."

She punched me lightly in the shoulder.

"If you insist on dressing me," I said, "It needs to be something inconspicuous, but pretty. After all it isn't everyday that a girl approaches Jimmy Neutron and tells him she's going to have his baby."

"I know just the thing," she said with a devious grin on her face.

* * *

A.N. Yay! Libby knows! I would also like to say that of course she would be the first to know. Out of everyone she knows, Cindy's the most comfortable with Libby. Best friends forever!


	23. Dividing by Zero

Disclaimer: I was thinking about buying stock in DNA productions just to say that I own a piece of Jimmy Neutron, but then I remembered I have no money.

A.N. I know I've said it before, but this has been the hardest chapter to write, mostly because it's come to me in bits and pieces instead of a whole and trying to connect those pieces is a pain.

* * *

Jimmy's POV

After I said goodbye to Cindy for the weekend I decided to take her suggestion and get some sleep. I hadn't realized how arduous watching out for her at night had been until I climbed into bed, and instantly fell asleep. I probably could have fallen asleep on the cold concrete of the lab's floor, as exhausted as I felt. I awoke as usual kicking and shouting from the horrendous dream that still tormented me. It would never go away as long as I knew Eustace could possibly be out there. I glared at the clock. It was only 6 p.m. Like most weekends, when I couldn't see Cindy, time would drag on. Monday morning never came fast enough.

Drenched in nightmare-induced sweat, I decided that it was time to shower and actually shave for the first time in a couple days. I hesitated to go back to sleep, knowing that the dream would return, and I would have to repeat the calm showering process again. Showered and unsure of what to do next, I strode to the lab, knowing that some project down there would be able to take my mind off of Cindy and the dream at least for a while. I was deeply engrossed in modifying the laser sword that I had battled Strych with, trying to recalibrate it to make the blade burn at a higher degree, when there was a knock on the clubhouse door.

"Jimmy!" I would have recognized the voice anywhere, and probably could hear it from three states over.

"Hey Sheen," I mumbled.

I could tell from his voice that nothing was wrong and that I didn't need to bother to check Vox's security camera, so I robotically pressed the button to admit him into the lab. Carl followed him in. Both joined me at the workstation, assisting when I needed them. They were used to my pedantic ways when it came to inventions, and they knew that this one was special. I carried it on me at all times when I went out now, concealed in miniature hyper-cube in my pocket, just in case. They chatted about trivial things as we worked for a while, like one of the pregnant llamas on the farm and the bachelor party that Sheen was attempting to plan. I tuned them out until…

"So what were you saying about Cindy's mom?" Carl asked.

At the mention of Cindy's name, my head shot up. Something about Carl's tone of voice told me this was serious. I stared at Sheen, waiting for the story.

"Libby told me not to tell anyone, but her mom kicked her out. She wouldn't say why. She just muttered under her breath about the judgmental jerk not being able to handle something or other. I didn't catch all of it. Anyway she's going to be staying at Libby's for a while," Sheen said.

My eyes practically bulged out of my head. Pukin' Pluto! Cindy homeless? Why would her mother do that? Sure things were a little tense between the two of them, but they had been getting along just fine. Then it dawned on me. It was my fault that Cindy didn't have a home. She was standing out on the curb with all of her stuff because her mother came home while I was visiting.

"It's my fault," I whispered more to myself than to the guys.

"What?" Carl asked.

"I was over earlier today, and her mom caught us…" my voice drifted off.

"Dude! You guys were having sex! Way to go Jimmy!" Sheen exclaimed.

I closed my eyes and bit back the anger, "We were watching a movie, like we normally do."

"So that's what they're calling it nowadays," he said winking at me.

"She's probably so mad at me right now," I lamented. "She's probably never going to want to see me again."

"Or she could be standing with Libby outside the lab door waiting to be let in," Carl pointed to the security screen.

I looked to where he had indicated. It was Cindy, but she looked _different_. I had grown so used to seeing her in sweats and marred by exhaustion that this new Cindy, who stood at the door with her hands classically placed on her hips, took me by surprise. I forgot how beautiful she was. She had an enchanting radiance about her that I partially attributed to the burning passion I felt for her that filled my veins with a rush of hormones. The other part I knew had to be the glow of the moonrise behind her. Cindy's hair was up in a slightly damp ponytail and little wisps of hair fluttered around her face where they had escaped from the clasp. Her legs were clad in a pair of Capri pants that I remember teasing her about when we were younger. She was wearing color for the first time in a long time, a muted pink floral tank top that had small bows where the strings of the top tied together. The shirt hugged the top of her chest tightly bringing it to a new tantalizing light. The bottom portion flowed freely from the top. It danced around her in the slight breeze. A thin sparkling rope of silver beads draped across her neck, drawing my eye away from her... ah, chest… and to her face. Light makeup adorned her face, accentuating her green eyes, which held a worried look about them.

"I have a baaaaad feeling about this," Carl muttered.

"This does not bode well," Sheen responded. "As long as she doesn't say the words 'we need to talk' he should be fine. Talk about the four worst words in the English language."

"Jimmy, we need to talk," Cindy said timidly into the security camera.

'_Timid? Since when is Cindy timid?_' My thoughts were interrupted when Sheen stage whispered to me, "Run man! Run!"

"Just kidding, never mind," she mumbled despondently; she must have heard Sheen's comment. To Libby she whispered, "I can't do this."

Libby pulled her out of earshot and began to reprimand her. Cindy's hands came off her hips and she clutched one arm in the other nervously. Though I couldn't hear what they were saying, the angry expression on Libby's face as she waved her hands around her with a frustrated air was clearly visible. I couldn't remember the last time the two of them actually had a fight, but this was close enough. Cindy looked on the verge of tears. My protective instinct instantly triggered at the sight of Cindy's crestfallen face. I dashed up the stairs, Sheen and Carl fast at my heels. I burst out the door in time to hear Libby shout, "You're already here! Just tell HIM!"

"Libby!" I shouted, slightly disgusted. "How can talk to her like that?! After all she's been through!"

The girls spun around, startled that they were caught in the act of arguing. Palpable fear flashed through Cindy's eyes. The necklace bobbed up and down as she gulped. She must have buried the panic, however, because her next words contained as much authoritative force as I had seen during an argument we had about stem cell research during the debate class we shared in high school.

"Leave her alone Neutron!" she commanded. "Now I came here to talk to you and I'm not leaving until I do!"

Libby nodded her head in approval. I crossed my arms across my chest, indignant at her flagrant use of my surname. I thought we were past that by now.

"Whatever you need to say to me, you can say in front of Sheen and Carl."

"Trust me," Libby spoke up, "She can't. Come on guys. They need some private time."

Carl received the message loud and clear. He patted my back, and headed for his car, calling behind him, "Good luck Jim."

Libby turned to Sheen, who was shaking his head violently back and forth and motioning that I should still make a break for it. She roughly grabbed his arm and began to drag him away. She gave a pointed look to Cindy as they left the yard.

"Hey Libby, you wanna go 'watch a movie'" Sheen leered at Libby as she pulled him towards her car.

I watched them leave for a minute before I turned back to Cindy, whose sudden show of bravado had disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared. Though I couldn't name the emotion that lay in her eyes, it made me want to wrap her in my arms and hold her tightly. I stood captivated by her eyes. Their green sparkle made my heart skip a beat for a moment. The urge to kiss her shoved itself to the forefront of my brain. Unfortunately, I remembered, she was probably inconceivably vexed with me. My shoulders slumped at the thought.

"Cindy, I…" I started to say, but she waved a hand in my face to stop me.

"I assume Sheen told you about my mom kicking me out," I nodded morosely, but she continued, "That's not why I'm here."

She halted. Apprehensiveness washed across her features. I waited patiently for whatever she needed to tell me. She sighed and then spoke.

"Maybe this would be easier if we weren't exposed like this," she concluded.

Cindy reached for my hand and I automatically grasped it in my own. Without a second thought I escorted her into the lab. I seated her on a couch and took a spot across from her. I thought it would be easier to talk seated that way, and I had a feeling that this would need to be a face-to-face conversation. I placed my hands on my knees and leaned forward to face her.

"Ok Cindy," I spoke cautiously, "What's going on?"

There was a pregnant pause.

"Promise me you're not going to get mad or overreact," she looked at pleadingly.

"Promise," I told her in my most sincere voice.

"No," Cindy shook her head. "Swear it to me on the theory of relativity that you'll just listen and hear me out."

"Fine, fine. I swear. Just tell me," I empathetically replied.

I would have done anything for the girl, just to get rid of that helpless expression that was on her face. A rush of horror spread through my body as I realized that it was the same expression I had seen in my dreams each night, the identical expression she had on her face before Strych stabbed her. A knot formed in my stomach as I stood and walked to her. Placing myself by her side, I took her hands into my own. They were trembling and ice cold. I gently rubbed my thumb over the back of her hand to warm them up.

"Did…" she hesitated, "did Eustace ever tell you what he was doing to me, while he had me?"

"No."

She was going to talk to me about this now? Why? I always knew that there was more to the story than she let on, but I didn't expect her to tell me so straightforwardly. I watched helplessly as trails of tears soundlessly poured down her pale cheeks and dripped onto her pant legs, but she made no motion to wipe them away. I reached up with a cautious hand to brush away the teardrops. The horrible things I imagined he must have done to Cindy to make her look like that sent a wave of panic through me.

"You're dying aren't you? He really did poison you and you just didn't have the heart to tell me," a touch of mad hysteria entered my voice.

"No, no, nothing like that," she shook her head glumly at me.

"Then what Cindy? Tell me! You're really starting to freak me out here."

"He was planning to grow one of his clones inside me," she said.

"What?" I gave her a puzzled look. Though I heard the words, something about them didn't compute. I was the one with clones, not Strych, and since when did he need a clone? "What are you talking about?"

"Well… There's… no easy way to say this…." she sniffed. "Jimmy… I'm pregnant."

With the final word of her statement my brain involuntarily shut down. I was conscious the whole time, but it felt like I existed on another plane. I most likely would have fainted if it weren't for the frigid hands clinging to mine and the thick crocodilian tears spilling out of her soft green eyes that bound me to the earth.

"Ha ha very funny Vortex. Joke's on me," I laughed mirthlessly. Though I spoke the words, my heart wasn't really behind them.

"I'm not joking Jimmy. I really am pregnant. Look," she loosened her grip to lift her shirt slightly and I could see a slight swelling in her stomach.

Suddenly things made sense now. The note: 9 months until she dies… Why she was the only female in the compound…. The high levels of pregnancy hormones in her blood work from the night we found her that I ignored.... Why she always wore oversized sweats; it was to cover the pregnancy, not hide her scars… Why she had me spar with a dummy instead of her; she had never been one to hesitate to kick my butt until… The memories flashed through my mind as the realization crystallized itself. It made perfect sense, and I was too blinded to see it.

As this understanding dawned on me, I further realized that I had known all along. My subconscious had been trying to tell me the whole time. That was the real reason Strych stabbed her in the stomach each night in my dreams.

"Wait but you said his…" I felt all the blood drain from my face as I blanched. "We have to get that thing out of you!" I yelled jumping up.

Her eyes grew wide. She ceased crying and shrunk as far back from me as humanly possible on the couch.

"Absolutely not!" Cindy shrieked back at me. Her eyes blazed with a passion I had never seen before. She reminded me of a feral cat or grizzly bear protecting its young.

"Why? That thing is a monster, beget by the devil himself!" I spat. I began to frantically pace to and fro in front of her.

"It is not! I love the baby!" Her arms protectively wrapped around her stomach.

I choked on her words, "You love Strych's baby?" I demanded.

"It's not Eustace's you moron! Would you let me explain? Gah! You're just like Libby! I knew you'd overreact."

"Of course I'm going to overreact when the woman I love tells me that she's been forcibly impregnated with some other man's baby!" I shouted at her.

I threw my hands up in despair. Her eyes grew wide in shock and it took _me_ a minute to comprehend what I said. My brain skidded to a halt and I froze, hands still in the air above my head.

"You-you love me?" she asked in a small voice.

"Of course I'm in love with you! Gas Planets! Cindy, how could I not be? You've faced down countless numbers of horrendous circumstances and still have the bravery and courage to fight back. How many times have things seemed hopeless until you showed up? I would be lost without you. You're the only one who can keep up with me; the only one who challenges me to grow, to be better and I love that about you. I love everything about you. The tenderness you pretend you don't have, your wit, your fire and passion, even your insults, they all make me want you more. I think I've always been in love with you, even when we were kids. I just couldn't figure out what it was that I was feeling. You're all I've been able to think about for the last 7 months. I bent time and space to my will to find you, and I've just been too scared to tell you, in case…" the last words caught in my throat.

"In case you didn't feel the same way," I finally managed to spit out and in my desperation I pulled on a chunk of my hair.

As I struggled to contain myself, her whole demeanor changed. She looked at me like I had grown a second head for a moment. Although fresh tears rolled down her face, further smudging her makeup, something about these tears gave me a small bit of hope. But as her silence grew louder and more prolonged the feebler that iota of hope became.

"Say something!" I shouted. A new different kind of panic rushed through me. I had just bared my soul to the girl I was in love with and now I was facing down the theory that this love was unrequited. I ran my hand through my hair, attempting to scalp myself and straighten the strands that I had pulled loose earlier at the same time. "At least tell me who the father is! If it's not Eustace's baby, then who's is it?"

"It's yours, you dipstick! Why else would I be so willing to keep it, or so terrified to tell you that I lo…" she broke off.

"You what Cindy?" my heart jumped into my throat.

"I love you too. I just couldn't ever tell you either. Mother wouldn't approve; you were smarter, better than me, but I couldn't help but fall in love with you too. You're talented and thoughtful," she blushed.

Suddenly I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. With the release of air, the constant ache of my heart vanished. The revelation of her feelings filled the divide like an indestructible epoxy binding the ragged wounds that was left of my heart, making me whole at last. Like the Pythagorean theorem a2 + b2 = c2, fiery blonde + boy genius = completeness. My stomach flipped around and around. I wanted to dance, sing, something to express the euphoria that bubbled forth from my entire being.

Then the first part of her statement struck home.

"Mine? The fetus is mine?" I said collapsing next to her on the couch.

"Yes," came her firm reply.

"How?"

"Calamitous…"

"I knew he had something to do with this!" I exclaimed.

"Jimmy!" she scolded me, "It's a long story, and I don't know if I'll be able to finish it. You're gonna have to listen, and stop interrupting me."

"Fine," I acquiesced eager to hear the story.

"Maybe I should back up a bit," she sighed. "Eustace took me, because he has no money left. He killed his own father so that he could get his inheritance faster. His father got the last laugh though."

"How so?" I whispered.

She glared at me for a moment.

"You're interrupting again."

"Sorry," I chuckled lightly.

"His dad put in a clause in his will that he had to leave you alone for a while, and on top of that he had to produce an 'heir' to the Strych dynasty. He thought it would teach Eustace to be responsible," she snorted.

"So Eustace kidnapped Beautiful Gorgeous and held her for ransom. He forced Calamitous to reproduce the work that he had been doing. Calamitous was trying to make a genetically viable child for Beautiful Gorgeous and the Junkman, but instead stumbled on the formula for making a submissive clone. Eustace was going to make him put one in…" she paused and shuddered.

I scooted closer to her and placed my arm around her shoulder. Cindy nestled into my chest as she lost herself in the memories, and I pulled her tighter to myself, knowing she needed the physical reassurance. I rested my head atop of hers.

"I tried," she bit back a sob, "I tried so hard to escape. I tried everything I could think of, but I just wasn't…"

"Shh," I murmured into her hair. "You're here now."

Cindy nodded against my chest and continued, "One day, about a week after you guys had left to save me from Evil Jimmy, Calamitous came to my cell. He _freed_ me, and we fled together. Just before Eustace caught us again he told me about the baby. He said that I reminded him of his daughter when she was young, and that all he wanted was for her to be happy. He said that he couldn't stand to see…" again she trailed off.

She craned her neck to look up at me, "Jimmy, he killed him. Eustace killed Calamitous. In front of me, and all he tried to do was save me."

Unable to think of anything else to say I increased the pressure of my squeeze. She seemed content to stay there. We sat in silence, stuck in our own heads for a long while.

"Wow," I whispered. "So we're going to have a baby."

I raked my hands through my hair again and smiled down at her. As my eye caught hers, she looked down.

"I know we're both young and you have so much promise with college and I understand if you don't want…" she mumbled staring down at her hands. She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt.

"Cindy, how could you say that? After all this, I'm not going anywhere."

"You're sure? Even with all the arguing and Eustace and the baby …" I grabbed her head and gently tilted her face to gaze into her lustrous green eyes.

"Cind, after everything we've been through we're the only one's who'll be able to fully understand each other. Our love is like dividing by zero.... you can't define it,"

"So we're a math equation now?"

"We're whatever _you_ want us to be," I said and waited on baited breath. I placed my heart in her hands. Though Cindy had admitted she loved me, I still didn't know if she really wanted to be together. This was the biggest experiment of my life and for once I couldn't afford to screw things up.

"What kind of question is that?"

"Technically it's not a question, rather a empirical statement of the truth," I responded, flashing her my best genius grin.

She rolled her eyes and shoved me away from her playfully. I leaned on the opposite arm of the couch, still waiting for her answer.

"I've waited a long time for you, James Isaac Neutron. I'm not about to let you go anytime soon."

Unable to contain my joy, I shouted, "Wahoo!"

The rush of exhilaration filled me and I jumped buoyantly to my feet. I hauled Cindy to her feet and caught her up in a hug, lifting her off the ground. She laughed with me as we stood there. I was the first time all night I heard a sincere laugh from her, and made elation that much greater.

"Come on," she said after our fits of maniacal laughter subsided. Cindy interlaced her slender fingers with mine, sending a thrill of pleasure through my body. She pulled me to the staircase. "We have to go tell Libby that everything's going to be fine. I asked her to explain everything to Sheen. I figured she'd know the best way to tell him."

"Hey," I asked smiling, as we walked to the lab door together, "Does this mean you're not going to call me Nerdtron anymore?"

"Dream on boy genius," she gave mischievous grin and flirtatious wink. "You'll always be Nerdtron to me."

* * *

A.N. I want to add that there's a line in here that I stole from the IDOJ forum about nerdy pick up lines. It fit so well into the storyline that I couldn't resist using it and since I'm telling you guys about it, it's not plagiarism. There's another one in the coming chapters that I used as well.

I also know that Jimmy sounds a bit bipolar in the last bit of the chapter, but you have to admit it's a lot of new information being thrown at him, of course his responses are going to chaotic.

I'm also toying around with the idea of telling this chapter from Cindy's POV to get her reaction to Jimmy's comments and to find out what Libby said to her you know stuff like that, but I'm not sure… I think it would be slightly repetitious to have the same dialog. You guys let me know what you think.


	24. Terrified

Disclaimer: Um…. Of these things I know, the sky is blue because of Rayleigh scattering, my hair is purple because of hair dye, and I don't own Jimmy Neutron because they freaking cancelled it!

* * *

Cindy's POV

I stood at the door to his lab, like I had so many times before. Each time I found myself there it led to another new amazing adventure. Normally standing at the door, the gateway to his scientific domain, would fill me with a thrill of excitement and my mind would race with thoughts of what kind of insulting complements I could throw his way, just to confuse him. This time however my body filled with a new uncomfortable feeling.

'_Terrified,' _I thought to myself. _'So this is what it feels like to be terrified. Suck!'_

Not even when I had been in the depths of hell in Eustace's clutches had I felt like this, but Libby was right. I needed to tell him, and the sooner I got it over with the sooner I could move on with my life.

Mother had always said that the first step to confidence was wearing the right clothes, but I didn't feel that just then. Libby had dressed me in a pretty awesome outfit, but the one thing that I wanted to wear more than anything else was the necklace Jimmy made for me to give me some trace of hope or comfort.

"Jimmy, we need to talk,"

The words came unbidden from my mouth. He had gone overboard with the lab's security system since my kidnapping, so I knew that he would be able to hear me. If he wasn't in the lab, his security cameras would transfer the data from the video feed to a new monitor in his room, or Goddard, or his watch.

Through the speaker mounted on the outside wall of the lab I heard a voice, probably Sheen, whisper "Run man! Run!"

"Just kidding, never mind. Libby I can't do this." I mumbled, my courage weakening.

She latched onto my arm and pulled me away from the speaker. Tonight seemed to be the night to fluster my unflappable best friend. First the church making her move her wedding date, then me admitting to her that I was pregnant, now this.

"What are you doin' sista?" she scolded me. "You have t' tell him. He loves you! Trust me! What are ya gonna do if you don't tell him now? Wait until the baby comes and be all 'Surprise it's yours!' I don't think so! Girl if you don't tell him yourself, so help me God, I will tell Sheen to tell him and you do NOT want that to happen. You're already here! Just tell HIM!"

I bit my lip and was about to respond when I heard a voice shout, "Libby!" My eyes grew wide as I heard Jimmy's voice behind us. I hadn't even heard him open the door. "How can talk to her like that?! After all she's been through!"

'_Oh crap!'_ I thought. I was never going to hear the end of it from Libby about this if I didn't tell him now, so I plunged ahead with my plan to tell him about the baby.

"Leave her alone Neutron! Now I came here to talk to you and I'm not leaving until I do!"

He said something else, to which Libby replied, but I was too startled by my own resolve to pay attention. I watched Carl depart and Libby forcibly haul Sheen from the scene. I knew that Sheen had probably told Jimmy about my mother kicking me out of the house. Libby confessed to me on the way over that she told him about it while I was in the shower. That boy could never keep a secret. She was going to tell Sheen about the baby for me anyway, but I didn't want Jimmy to hear this news from someone else.

Somehow we made it into the lab and I attempted to tell him about Eustace's plan and the fact that I was pregnant in a way that he wouldn't blow a gasket. As I broached the topic with him, his concern oozed from every word and look that he gave me, and it gave me more strength to move forward. It was near impossible for me to find a way to tell him though, and I made a sloppy mess of myself all over him in the process. He freaked of course, but what would you expect, he was a boy after all.

"We have to get that thing out of you!" he yelled.

I couldn't believe me ears. Jimmy was telling me to abort my baby, our baby? The rage that washed over his features filled me with more terror than I thought possible.

"Absolutely not!" I screeched, actually scared that he would follow through with his statement. Sometimes Jimmy's temper got the better of him. I had only seen it a few times for myself. Once when we were the N men, he turned into a raving orange monster and I had to talk him down. Another time in junior high, he stood up to some bullies who repeatedly harassed Carl. It wasn't a pretty sight and I didn't want to repeat either experience again.

"Why? That thing is a monster, beget by the devil himself!"

"It is not! I love the baby!" I shouted back at him; if he wanted to get rid of her, then I would go down fighting. I glared daggers at him. This baby was _MINE, _and no one would be able to separate us. I may have been out of shape, but I could still kick Jimmy's butt if I needed to.

"You love Strych's baby?"

A look of loathing twisted his features. He looked as though he actually hated me for loving the baby. That was the crux of the matter though; he thought that the baby was Eustace's.

'_Why don't the people I know let me clarify things before they blow everything out of proportion?'_ I thought to myself before I told him irritably, "It's not Eustace's you moron! Would you let me explain? Gah! You're just like Libby! I knew you'd overreact."

That's when he did something I never expected him to do. He told me he loved me. For a moment I couldn't believe that Jimmy had actually said it. The possibility of him returning my feelings had never been more than a farfetched daydream or something that Libby would tease me about. I never thought that he would, like I had for so long, hidden his true feelings. It made me cry all over again. They were happy tears, but then I remembered that I hadn't told him that the baby was his. The thought that he would reject me because of the baby kept me mum for a moment. My unresponsiveness must have unnerved him, because then he yelled at me again.

"Say something! At least tell me who the father is! If it's not Eustace's baby, then who's is it?"

'_Someone should tell boys that yelling at girls is no way to make them fall in love with them,' _I thought.

I let out an exasperated sigh.

"It's yours, you dipstick! Why else would I be so willing to keep it, or so terrified to tell you that I lo…"

"You what Cindy?" he looked at me with big puppy dog eyes.

"I love you too. I just couldn't ever tell you either," I blushed as my confession bubbled forth from my mouth.

His face reflected the astonishment that I felt just minutes ago. Never before had I seen the big-mouthed genius dumbstruck. He always had something else to say, a snappy comeback, to brag about some invention, a comment to make about a scientific discovery he was researching, but this time his voice refused to come. Who would have thought that after years of trying to shut him up the perfect way to get him to be quiet would be for me to admit my feelings for him?

I knew that this would probably be the only time I would get Jimmy silent enough to finish telling him everything. Steeling myself, I took a deep breath and told him the rest of the story. In the middle, as I struggled to contain my emotions, he pulled me close and held me. There would have been no way that I could have finished telling him had I not been in his arms. They kept me in the present, kept me from becoming trapped by the memories that still haunted me. When I finished I peered up into Jimmy's clear blue eyes. A strangled expression rolled across his face as he wrestled with the truth of my account. After all Calamitous had done in his attempts to save me from a horrible fate, neither of us had reason to question Calamitous' story. I could almost see the gears whirling around in his head. Had I been in a better mood I might have imagined smoke coming from his ears as he processed the tale.

I found myself wishing I knew what was going on in his mind, but then he spoke again, "So we're going to have a baby."

I should have known he was going to be noble about it. Jimmy had always done the "right thing" no matter what the cost, even at the sacrifice of his own best interest, but I wasn't going to let him sacrifice the promising future he had waiting for him for me, no matter how badly I wanted to be with him. I looked down at my hands and tried to think of a way to give him an out if he really didn't want to be with me. But then he said the corniest line I had ever heard and I knew that he wanted to be with me as well.

Still he left it up to me to decide, saying, "We're whatever you want us to be."

Jimmy, the big nerd, made a fool of himself celebrating when I told him that I wasn't letting him go anywhere without me, but he was _my_ big nerd now and so I rejoiced with him. He picked me up and whirled me around. The relief and ecstasy I felt rivaled his. Of course we'd always been rivals in everything, academics, competitions and accolades, so how would our happiness be any different. That thought made me laugh harder.

To my great disappointment however, he didn't kiss me. I suppose though, that it would have been too cliché for the two of us to finally admit our feelings and then make out.

* * *

Jimmy insisted that we tell his parents before we met up with the guys and Libby. Standing on the top step of his porch, I stopped and gulped. Twilight had deepened into the dark of night while we had talked and I shivered in the cold with a touch of fear.

I had a deep respect for Jimmy's mom and dad. When my parent's marriage had dissolved, Mr. and Mrs. Neutron took it upon themselves to take me under their wing. In all honesty I received more love and affection from the two of them than I ever had from my own parents. They even extended an open invitation to dinner anytime, much to the chagrin of my mother. Mrs. Neutron had confided in me once in private that I was the daughter she wished she had. They were always understanding when it came to disasters. After all, they put up with Jimmy when his weird inventions went horribly awry. This was different though. How did I know that they wouldn't reject me like my mother did? The last thing that either of us needed would be for his parents to kick him out of the house the way Mother had with me.

"Jimmy, don't make me do this," I begged him.

"Trust me," Jimmy said in a low voice seductive voice that I would have followed anywhere, "My parents love you. They're not going to do what your mom did to you. I promise."

He seemed to have read my mind, but then we were always close like that. He gallantly opened the door for me and the two of us were bathed in the soft glow that filtered in from the room juxtapose to the kitchen.

"Mom? Dad?" he called into the next room. "Are you guys still up?"

"Of course they're still up," I grumbled and elbowed him in the ribs. "The lights are still on."

I felt like a lamb being led to the slaughter as he pulled me into the next room. Mr. Neutron was on their couch polishing his newest acquisition.

"Well hey there son!" his dad called. "Check out my new duck! He's a Piebald Muscovy Drake. I've been looking for one of these for years!"

Jimmy closed his eyes for a moment to keep from rolling them. I stifled a giggle behind him.

"Actually Dad, I was hoping that I… er… _we_ could talk to you and Mom about something. Do you know where she is?" he asked.

I smiled at the fact that he was already referring to us as "we." His dad peered around him to get a better look at me.

"Well if it isn't that cute little Cindy Vortex from across the street," he said making me blush. "Sugar booger! Come down here. Our Jimbo's got some news to share with us."

There was a noise at the top of the steps. Jimmy turned to face the stairs and placed a hand on my shoulder. I felt another strong hand wrap around my waist and firmly but gently hold me there. He must have known that I was ready to bolt.

"Cindy dear," his mom greeted me warmly. "It's so nice to see you."

"Hi Mrs. Neutron," I murmured tentatively.

"Cindy," she clucked her tongue at me. "How many times do I have to tell you? Call me Judy."

For a moment she looked as though she was going to reach for a hug, but when I leaned forward to embrace her, Jimmy's arms pulled me tighter to his body. She took in the sight of Jimmy wrapped snugly around me and raised an approving brow. Some how I didn't think she would be so eager to give us her blessing soon.

"It's been too long," she smiled at the two of us.

"Well… I… you know with my…" I trailed off, knowing she would get the point.

A slight look of scorn crossed her visage as she figured out what I meant. Jimmy had probably already told them of his exile from the pink house across the street. She and Mother were truly like Jimmy and I had appeared to be, never seeing eye to eye on anything. While Judy tried to be hospitable to my churlish mother, it never failed that Mother would make some sort of undeserved slight against Jimmy or Hugh. It was another straw to add to the camel's already broken back and I couldn't blame her for disliking my mother. Fortunately I was spared from this disfavor. Mrs. N never blamed me for my upbringing, even when Jimmy and I argued like cats and dogs.

"Is there something you wanted to tell us, Jimmy?" she asked curiously.

"Jimmy, I'm not about to ruin your family," I whispered. I leaned up close to his face so that no one else would hear, but his mom caught what I said anyway.

"What on earth?" she looked at us quizzically.

"You're gonna wanna sit down for this," he motioned with his head to the couch.

She strode into the living room and took a seat next to Mr. Neutron. She shot her husband a concerned look, but he just shrugged. Jimmy walked me to a chair across from them and pressed me gently into the comfortable soft cushions. Planting his feet firmly beneath him, he leaned a hip against the arm of the chair and snatched my hand up. I smiled up at him weakly.

"Before you say anything, I just want you to know, I've made my decision and there's nothing you guys can say or do to make me change my mind," Jimmy said assertively.

I swallowed loudly. My eyes bounced back and forth between Jimmy and his parents. His mom furrowed her brow further and motioned with her hand for him to go on with the story. Jimmy heaved a great sigh.

"Leapin' Leptons," he murmured. "You're right Cin. There is no easy way to say this."

"Are you in trouble son?" Mr. Neutron asked.

"No, no Dad. I'm not in trouble," Jimmy reassured him.

"Not yet," I muttered moodily. He squeezed my hand reassuringly.

"Cindy and I have…" he started.

"Wait I know! You two have finally worked out all of your problems and now you're together. Aww! You know son, your mom and I have always been rooting for you two," Mr. Neutron interrupted.

"Dad," Jimmy ran his free hand through his hair.

"When she went missing we all thought it was going to be the end of you. We were wondering when it was going to happen," he continued.

"Dad!"

His dad was taken aback for a moment when Jimmy yelled at him.

"You're right about Cindy and I being together," he kissed the back of my hand tenderly.

"There's more to the story though," he said.

He looked down at me. I shook my head and raised my eyebrows beseechingly. He understood that I was silently imploring him to tell the story for me; that retelling it for a third time in less than four hours would push me over the edge. He nodded at me and began to tell them. His words tumbled from his lips. He gave them a similar cut and dry version of the story that I had told Libby only hours earlier, concluding with the pronouncement that I was going to give birth to his child. At this, Mr. Neutron dropped the duck model still in his hand suddenly and it crashed to the table, knocking down the open bottle of wood polish. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he slumped down across his wife's lap in a dead faint.

Mrs. Neutron gave an awkward giggle and admitted, "He did the same thing when I told him I was pregnant with you."

"Wait you mean you're not mad or upset or anything?" I asked.

I couldn't mask the hope that lay in my voice. Maybe things wouldn't be as bad as I thought.

"We always knew the two of you had a bond much deeper than most people and would eventually work out your issues. You two were as meant to be as Hugh and ducks," Mrs. Neutron insisted smiling at me. "Though we didn't think it would be in such an unorthodox way."

She pushed her unconscious husband off her lap and walked over to the two of us. She pulled the other chair closer to me. Mr. Neutron, separated from his wife's contact, slowly awoke and sat up to look at the three of us. She took my hand, the one not being held onto by Jimmy, and patted it.

"I just thought…" I looked down at my lap.

"You thought what Cindy?" she cupped my chin in her hands and brought it up so that my eyes met hers.

"That you guys would respond the same way…" I sighed

"As your mother?" she asked.

Her eyebrows creased together and she pursed her lips. Mrs. Neutron shook her head slightly and a look of compassion washed over her features.

"Sweetheart, I know this is going to be hard enough for you. We would never look down on you for something that someone else did to you," she said reassuringly.

It took me a second to realize that she was calling me sweetheart and not Jimmy.

"Thanks, Mom," Jimmy turned to hug his mother with one arm.

"Jimmy dear, we've always known that the adventures you guys went on as kids aged you, made all of you more mature than your years. I wish you could have spent more time as kids," she shed a tear for his lost childhood, our lost childhood, but smiled at me again.

"How do we know this Calamitous was telling the truth?" Mr. Neutron asked out of nowhere. "Wasn't he one of those Gang of No-Gooder guys that kidnapped you?"

Mrs. Neutron shot him a glare. She looked like she was getting to reprimand him, but I cut her off.

"No it's a valid question. I have no reason to doubt his story," I insisted firmly. "He died trying to right his wrongs."

That seemed to convince his dad and he stood to join us. Jimmy hauled me to my feet and wrapped me in another ginormous hug. Another new emotion rushed through my body when his parents reached around us and joined the embrace. I realized that now I was a part of something I hadn't experienced before, a caring family.

"Just think Hugh. We're going to have another little Neutron running around," she smiled wider.

* * *

I asked Libby on the way over if she would do the honors of explaining everything to the guys. Though we were close, I didn't know if I could have another emotional break down in front of Sheen and Carl. Carl'd probably die of shock seeing me, Cindy Vortex cry, and Sheen would most likely tune out everything except for the words "pregnant with Jimmy's baby".

I knew they'd still be sitting in the driveway. As far as Libby knew she was my ride back to her place if things hadn't gone well. Jimmy swung open the front door of his house and we could see them. We walked hand in hand to their waiting cars to tell Sheen, Carl, and Libby the news. The three of them were sitting the bed of Carl's dilapidated orange truck. Sheen had an arm casually wrapped around Libby's shoulder. Carl faced the two of them. They looked like three friends who had been chatting about nothing particular that night, not the morose subjects that I knew they must have discussed. At the sound of the front door opening the three of them turned to face us. The look on Libby's face as she took in the sight of us smiling at each other clearly screamed, "I told you so."

"Took the two of you long enough!" Sheen exclaimed when he saw us. "Who said it first?"

He jumped up and vaulted over the tailgate to the concrete. He landed silently, like a cat, and shot back up to stand erect. Somehow, Sheen managed to grow out of the awkward clumsiness of his childhood years. During the middle of his growth spurt in high school Sheen had stopped being uncoordinated when it came to his gross motor skills. He turned fluidly and flipped down the tailgate. It landed with a thud sending a cloud of small bits of rust and paint chips into the air.

"Said what Sheen?" I asked.

"That you loved each other, duh!" he shouted. He looked at Carl and Libby for a moment. "And they say I'm clueless."

He offered a hand to Libby to help her from the truck. She took his hand and jumped down into his waiting arms. He wrapped one arm around Libby's waist. Carl sat on the edge of the tailgate, his legs swinging in the air beneath him.

"Oh, that would be me," Jimmy admitted sheepishly.

"Yes!" Sheen pumped a fist in the air. "Carl, you owe me 20 bucks! Pay up!"

"Aw man," Carl sighed.

He reached into his pocket as Jimmy asked, "What for?"

"I told him you'd be the first to crack, but Carl insisted that Cindy would be the one to say that she loved you first," Sheen replied, counting the single dollar bills Carl handed him.

Libby and I giggled as Jimmy clenched his fist. I pressed my hand against his chest and shook my head slightly. He slung an arm around my shoulders. The wind blew hard against the two of us. It pushed the sheer fabric of my shirt against my stomach, making the growing life inside more visible.

"Whoa! I know Libby said she was pregnant, but dude!" Sheen blurted out. "You knocked up Cindy Vortex! Way to go!"

He looked at Carl and said, "And he said they were just watching movies… Ch!"

He rolled his eyes.

"Movies?" I asked glancing up at Jimmy.

Jimmy cleared his throat and blushed.

"He seems to be under the impression that the real reason your mother kicked out is… that she caught us…" his face flushed an even brighter shade of crimson.

"Shackin' up! You know! The horizontal hula! The mattress mambo! Doin' the nasty!" Sheen shouted, interrupting him.

I shot Libby a look.

Her eyes wide, she replied, "I told them the story. Exactly the same way you told me. I…"

She rested her head in her hand as words failed her at the feigned cluelessness of her fiancé. Sheen's eyes lit up as though he suddenly realized something.

"Man! You got laid before I did!" he practically screamed for the whole neighborhood to hear.

I growled softly.

"Your fiancé…" I snarled at Libby.

My eyes narrowed into slits. Jimmy placed a restraining hand on my arm. He smirked deviously at Sheen with an unfamiliar sparkle in his eye.

Leaning close to my ear he whispered, "Don't worry Cin, we'll come up with something to get him back." He pressed closer until his lips grazed my skin. Even more quietly he told me in a mischievous voice, "I have an idea."


	25. Al and Mother

Disclaimer: I hate disclaimers, because they remind me that I don't own Jimmy Neutron.

* * *

Cindy's POV

Things had gone better than I could have ever imagined. It was weird to think that I had ever been afraid that it would have turned out any other way. I should have known better than to assume that Jimmy would reject me. Yes we fought constantly and had more than our fair share of weird adventures, but what couple didn't have some sort of weird quirk about their relationship? The fact that his parents were so ready to accept me, as well as their future grandchild, was an added bonus that I hadn't anticipated. Aside from Sheen's obnoxious remarks about Jimmy knocking me up, my best friends were relaxed about the whole baby issue as well. The only thing I wished I could have changed was my mother's mind about the baby and "that Neutron boy", but things don't always work out the way you want.

Before leaving Jimmy's that night I shot one last glare at the atrocious pink house my mother now lived in by herself. The five of us, really Jimmy and Libby, decided that since I was staying with Libby for the time being, that we should head back to her place to celebrate. It was still early on a Friday night, and I knew that Sheen wouldn't miss an opportunity to spend time with Libby. Jimmy and I rode in the back seat of Libby's car, hands still intertwined, while Carl followed us in his truck.

Gazing at the mirror of the sun visor, Sheen continually snickered at us from the seat next to Libby. A small part of me didn't mind. It was inevitable that the two of us would be a point of discussion for the whole town so why should Sheen's comments and laughter matter. But what Sheen didn't know was that the hushed whispers his mistook for murmurs of affection were really a mixture of said affectionate words and a plot to seek revenge against our Latino companion for his numerous stabs at my purity.

"Leave 'em be Sheen," Libby admonished her fiancé after 10 minutes of his persistent tittering and catcalls. "They've been waitin' like 7 years for this. Don't you dare ruin it… Again!"

"Hey!" Sheen replied indignantly, "Carl's messed it up just as many times as I have!"

"Libby," I spoke calmly. "It's fine. You have to admit it is rather funny. Jimmy Neutron and Cindy Vortex actually going out. Who would have thought?"

"Alright what have you done with the real Cindy?" she chuckled. "My girl would never pass up an opportunity to give Sheen a beat down."

"She's kinda busy at the moment," Jimmy said gazing into my eyes.

He brushed back a lock of hair that had escaped my ponytail. His hand lingered on my cheek and he traced my jaw line with his thumb softly. I blushed. Before removing his hand, he flashed me a secretive impish wink, which made me giggle, knowing what would happen next.

"Ok now I know you've done something to Cindy, Jimmy," Sheen raised his eyebrows at us in shock, "If you woulda told me that knocking her up would turn her into a real girl, giggling and all, I would have told you to do her earlier. Like junior high!"

"Shut up Sheen!" Libby said, her fingers tightening on the wheel.

She looked back at the two of us, but a small shake of Jimmy's head, barely perceivable to anyone not looking for it, stopped her from saying more. Sheen had taken his eyes off of us for a second too long, and I watched in silent delight as Jimmy's hand quickly snuck up behind Sheen's dark chocolate colored hair. Knowing Jimmy, he had probably been doing the calculations in his head so that he positioned his hand at the perfect angle to take Sheen completely by surprise as he let loose a resounding thwack on the back of Sheen's head.

"Ow!" Sheen hollered clutching his now injured scalp.

Libby, Jimmy, and I laughed hysterically while Libby pulled into the parking lot. Jimmy swiftly unbuckled his seatbelt and lunged across the seat to wrap his forearm around Sheen's neck before Sheen had a chance to move. A strangled garbling sound issued from Sheen's throat as he struggled wildly in vain, trying to claw his way out of Jimmy's stranglehold.

"If you think that hurt, Sheen, just remember," he told him in a low growl that sent excited shivers down my spin. "She's the stronger one of the two of us."

He drove the point home by grinding his knuckles into Sheen's skull, giving him one of the worst and most painful noogies I had ever seen. Jimmy shoved him playfully forward and finally released him. Opening his door, Jimmy ran around to the other side of the car to pull open the door for me. I graciously took his hand when he offered to help me out of the seat. He pulled me close and gave me a lingering hug from behind.

Libby and Sheen had already made it into the apartment, with Carl close behind them, when I elbowed him playfully in the ribs and said, "So you finally admit you're physically weaker than me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he rolled his eyes.

"Yes you do."

I pushed myself away from him and spun to face him. His poker face was up, but as I rounded on him, his eyebrows shot up to the middle of his forehead. He tilted his head towards me and waved a dismissive hand at me.

"You admitted it! You said that I was the strong one of the two of us!" I poked one finger into his chest.

"I think you need to get your ears checked, Cindy," he told me in mock solemn-ness.

"Neutron…" I growled a warning at him. I stood on tiptoes to bring my face to his. I stared into Jimmy's sapphire eyes, flashing him the death glare I reserved only for him.

"Honestly I don't know what you're talking about Miss Vortex. I said nothing of the sort," he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"You did too!" I shouted at him.

"That falsification would have never graced my lips," his façade cracked when he smiled at me. Jimmy's arms encircled me and pulled me tightly to him. I stumbled slightly, unprepared for his hug. My nose buried itself into his chest.

"Don't think you can get away with this, Nerdtron. You did so tell Sheen that I'm stronger than you," I muttered into the soft fabric of his cotton long sleeved t-shirt.

"I still contest that your auditory perception is off. I would never perjure myself so," he chuckled and released me from his grasp.

"Argh! You make me so mad!" I stamped my foot in frustration.

"I know," he said, taking my hand and leading me towards the door. "But if I didn't do it, who else would?"

"Stop that! You're attempting to change the subject! I am too stronger than you!" I yelled at him. I had to make every effort to keep myself from sticking my tongue out at him. Only Jimmy could make me revert back to such juvenile behavior.

"Sure you are, sweetheart," he treated me with a coy wink.

"Don't you patronize me! I am too and you know it!" I shouted as we crossed the threshold into the apartment.

"Aww man! They're fighting again," Carl stage whispered to Sheen and Libby who were seated across the room from him. "I think I need my inhaler."

"Chillax Carl," Sheen told him. "They're Jimmy and Cindy. Of course they're gonna fight. It's like oxygen to them. They'd turn blue and die instantly if they weren't at each other's throats fighting about science or who's smarter or who has more talent or who argues the most. Fighting's like their Love Language or somethin'."

He waved the hand not playing with Libby's hair at Carl as though he was shooing a fly. The two of us ignored their exchange, intent on our argument.

"How are you gonna prove that preposterous hypothesis?" he cocked a brow at me. "You have no evidence."

"Really? How about that time when we went miniature golfing on Mercury? You didn't beat me then," I shook my finger at him.

"We were kids then Cindy," he rolled his eyes at me and slapped one hand to his forehead, ashamed of the memory.

"How about your workout everyday? I've seen what you bench press and that's nothing…" I started to say, but I must have hit a nerve because he quickly cut me off.

"Fine! You know what?! You wanna go!?" he inclined his head towards the kitchen counter. "Come on! Right here, right now! You and me!"

"Carl! Shield your eyes!" Sheen shouted. "Jimmy and Cindy are gonna _do it _on the kitchen counter!"

Sheen ran to Carl's side, and in his haste, tripped over a stack of magazines Libby and I left out that he failed to see until it was too late. Unfortunately his cat like grace couldn't save him from landing face first into an open pizza box, where half a pizza still lay waiting to be consumed. He righted himself, face dripping with a mixture of cheese and pizza sauce. An olive sticking to one temple, he threw himself at Carl and covered his eyes. Carl wretched Sheen's hands off of his face and shoved him out of the way. Sheen floundered for a moment before returning to floor, this time crashing into and knocking over a freshly emptied garbage can. His antics went partially unnoticed by Jimmy and I as we glared at one another.

"Yeah and how about you put your money where your big mouth is," I jeered. I placed a hand on one hip and thrust it out. When he faltered, I tapped my foot in irritation at his stalling.

"How about something better than money?" He suggested after a moment, a calculating look in his eye.

"What did you have in mind?" I inquired scrunching my brow at him.

"Winner gets to name the baby. The loser gets no veto and can't make any objections," he grinned at me so widely that I thought his cheeks would crack if they could. I felt my eyebrows shoot up and my mouth open wide in shock. I didn't think that he would be thinking about things like that so soon, but apparently he had given it some thought.

"Cindy, don't do it!" Carl called, panic plainly filling his voice. "I know that look! It's his science fair face! For anyone competing against him it means certain DOOM!" he shouted the last word.

Inspecting his face further, I noticed the similarities to the expression Carl pointed out, but still I hesitated for less than a second knowing that I would smoke him. I always had, and no pregnancy or time spent wasting away in a villain's lair or looks of certain victory from my boyfriend's face would keep me from kicking his showy-off-y butt again.

"You're on…" I shook his hand.

"And when _I_ win I'll name the baby after my _mother_," I hazarded. He choked for a moment at my threatening remark and the tone of voice that I used. I couldn't help but laugh when his face lost all its color. Both of us knew that it was a hollow threat though.

"You wouldn't dare…" he accused, his eyes narrowing into slits.

"Try me," I smirked at him.

"That's fine, cause when_ I_ win I'm gonna name him _Albert_," he winked at me.

A quick halted guffaw escaped my lips. Of course he would name our child after his favorite scientist. It was so… so… Jimmy of him.

I strutted over to the counter and causally placed my elbow onto the Formica. He swaggered over to the other side, an aura of arrogance radiating around him and nodded to Carl. He clasped my hand and I noticed the calluses he had built over the years rubbing against my palm. A pleasant electric tingling began to creep up my arm as our hands connected. I teasingly batted my eyelashes at him and simpered in his direction.

"Sorry you're gonna get beat by a girl," I pouted at him, jutting out my lower lip.

He blinked at me as Carl approached us. He placed both of his hands over ours to start the match nearly ruining the flirtatious mood. His hands were sweaty and shook nervously as he gave us a timid order to begin.

"Not as sorry as I am that you're gonna get beat by a nerd," Jimmy retorted just as Carl released our hands.

I pressed my hand towards his, not bothering to put my full force into it. I knew that, while Jimmy had been working on building his muscles, I had the advantage. I had been training for over a month now and my muscles were almost back to peak form. No longer the damsel in distress, I could now hold my own. Still I should have been able to have his hand on the cold surface in an instant. Instead I looked on, horrified, as Jimmy's hand continued to stay upright. I groaned and put more energy into moving his hand. He grunted as well, which I took to be a sign that he was beginning to falter. His hand shook slightly as I pushed with all my might.

"Getting angry Neutron?" I found myself repeating the very words that I said so many years ago through gritted teeth.

"Actually no Vortex, I'm not angry at all," his unflustered voice startled me and I looked up to see his face, momentarily taking my focus off our hands. He flippantly shrugged one shoulder before gently slamming my hand into countertop.

"You!" I shouted. "You cheated!"

He shook his head in denial.

"Nope. As Goddard as my witness, it was all me," he blew on his nails and polished them against his shirt. "Not that I'm bragging or anything," he finished with a saucy wink.

He rounded the corner of the counter and placed a reassuring arm around my shoulders. He guided me to the other couch, kitty-corner to the one where Sheen had left Libby, and we sat down. After the winner of our contest had been decided, Sheen had retreated to the bathroom to clean himself up, lest he drip any more pizza sauce onto Libby's carpet.

"You've been holding out on me!" I accused, poking a finger into his chest. This time I wasn't so flustered as I had been before. Underneath the pad of my fingertip I could feel his well-defined muscles. It made me curious to see what was going on underneath his shirt, but Libby and Carl were in the room.

"Yup," he beamed down at me mischievously and flexed the muscles of the arm he had around me. "I've been working on more than just inventions in the lab. Even installed a home gym in there too."

"Really?" I asked snuggling deeper into his body.

He layered one arm over the other and pulled me closer.

"Mmhmm," he rested his chin on top of my head and I could feel the vibration of his words throughout my body. "You can come over anytime and see. Maybe if you're lucky I'll even let you work out with me. I mean if you can handle it."

I rolled my eyes at him and slapped him gently on the chest. I left my hand there, and after a moment worriedly asked him, "Are you really going to name our child Albert? I mean you don't even know if it's a boy or a girl yet."

"Cin, I wouldn't risk your wrath for the rest of our lives by naming him Albert. Plus our kid's gonna have enough to deal with, being our kid, let alone being teased for his name."

"Got that right," Sheen piped in returning from the bathroom, now dress in an oversized concert t-shirt of Libby's. He threw himself back onto the couch next to Libby, squashing himself down on the soft frilly pillows. He drew Libby close to him and threw Jimmy and me a lopsided grin.

"What makes you so sure that it's going to be a boy?" I said, pretending that I hadn't heard Sheen's remark.

"Well I- uh," he looked to Sheen and Carl for help.

"Cause when we went to the Dark Matter dimension Evil Jimmy and Evil Cindy were married and had two sons," Carl blurted out from the overstuffed chair on the other side of the room.

Jimmy slapped a hand to his forehead covering his eyes and his face turned a vibrant red as it went up in flames.

"Really? You failed to mention this; that we were married in a parallel universe," I quirked an eyebrow.

"I didn't bring it up cause… cause…" he stuttered. "I didn't bring it up, because it would have forced me to tell you my feelings sooner than I would have liked and with the uncertainty of you reciprocating those feelings I didn't want to take the risk that you didn't," he finally blurted out.

"I understand," I chuckled. "Though I think you should keep in mind there's still a possibility that it's a girl."

"So I'm curious," I said after a while, breaking the silence that had settled in, "What else did I miss while I was gone? Libby said something about the picture from my 16th birthday…" I trailed off knowing exactly what the picture contained.

"I went through a…" Jimmy stopped, not wanting to bring back the painful memories. "A rough phase… when my parents told us we'd been gone for such a long time."

He didn't go on and I felt him swallow and shudder. I hugged him closer, trying to reassure him that I was there now.

Libby, however gladly changed the subject to an easier one to talk about, our upcoming shopping adventure. Libby and I had originally planned to spend a lazy day, hanging out, doing whatever seemed like fun at the time, but upon the revelation of my pregnancy, she immediately scrapped those plans in favor of shopping for maternity clothes. Libby was going to foot the bill, using her mom's employee discount at our favorite retail store to help pay for the larger sized wardrobe I would soon need. Though she had a wedding to pay for, she had insisted that she be the one to pay for my clothes. She told me that she always had an emergency cash fund for fashion crises and if this wasn't one she didn't know what constituted as one.

The five of us spent the next couple hours talking, like we had when we were kids. Around midnight, after about my fifth consecutive yawn in a three-minute period (Jimmy was counting and plainly told us so.) the boys decided to call it a night. Libby walked Sheen and Carl to the truck so that Jimmy and I could say a private good night. I had gone to Libby's linen closet to grab some extra bedding for her hideaway bed. After Jimmy pulled out the hide-a-bed from the couch we had been sitting on, he turned to me.

"Can I see you tomorrow?" Jimmy asked as though I was going to say no.

"What kind of question is that? Of course you can, but not until tomorrow night. Libs and I are going shopping. Remember? I kinda have to look good for this guy I'm dating and I need some new clothes. You know to impress him or whatever," I waved my hands in front of me in an offhanded manner.

"He must be some awesome guy then," Jimmy nodded his head at me seriously.

"Nope," I shook my head in return, "he's just a big nerd, but I really like him."

I giggled and he folded me into his arms. I sighed contentedly and rested my head on his chest. We rocked slightly back and forth to a rhythm all our own. He buried his face into my neck, nuzzling it. I closed my eyes and silently reveled in the overwhelming sense of ardent love that flowed from him.

Rubbing my back in light circles, he whispered, "Night Cin."

"Night Jimmy," I breathed.

He lifted his head and brushed a gentle kiss against my forehead. He grinned like a maniac and turned to leave. Libby walked past him as he strode down the walkway to hitch a ride in Carl's truck back to his place. The two of us waved and turned back into the apartment.

"Told you so," Libby muttered as she walked to her room. I briskly changed and crawled into bed, smiling like a loon.

I felt like I just fell sleep when suddenly I awoke to a frantic pounding on the door to Libby's apartment.

'_Maybe they'll just go away if I don't answer.'_ I thought, but the knocking continued for another minute.

Groaning, I tossed aside the floral bedspread that I had cocooned myself in during the night. I glanced at the clock on the microwave as I shuffled to the door, but my eyes failed to focus. The numbers refused to become anything more than a nebulous red haze. Whoever was at the door must have thought that I was taking too long because the hammering increased in volume and tempo.

"Vortex, you'd better let me in!" I heard Jimmy's muffled voice on the other side of the door.

"This had better be important or he is so dead," I growled under my breath.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Don't get your Bunsen burners in a twist!" I shouted, trying to modulate my voice so that it wouldn't wake Libby in the next room, but so that it would still be loud enough to be heard through the door.

Dazed from weariness, I fumbled with the locks for a moment. I had probably opened that set of locks a thousand times before, but my lack of sleep and coordination left me unsuccessful. Finally so frustrated at the fact that I couldn't open a simple door that I wanted to swear, I pulled open the door.

"Hey," he said in a husky voice when I finally got the door unlatched. He said it too causally, like all his panicking hadn't happened.

I looked at him through blurred eyes to see him standing in the same clothes that he had been wearing the night before. They were rumpled and covered with soot. His hair was mussed and the dark circles that had disappeared yesterday when we had talked had made a reappearance. There was a smudge of cinder on his forehead that, had I not been so exhausted, I would have wiped away. He looked as tired and sleep deprived as I felt. I leaned against the door, letting it bear my weight while I waited for him to speak. He stood there grinning like an idiot for a long while. I closed my eyes and almost fell asleep standing up. I caught myself before I could fall to the ground, but it only made me more irritated.

"Do you know what time it is?" I asked growing impatient.

He glanced at his watch. He smiled ruefully and looked up at the sky grinning, trying to act innocent.

"Six a.m.?" he admitted sheepishly.

"Some of us like to sleep in on Saturdays, Nerdtron," I tried to growl at him, but the effect was ruined by the jaw cracking yawn that escaped my lips.

"I know that. I just wanted to make sure yesterday wasn't just a dream," he gave me a goofy crooked grin.

I squinted up at him in the bright predawn sunlight. I wrapped an arm across my chest and held onto the other with my hand.

"Nope," my lips popped in irritation on the p. "It wasn't a dream. I'm pregnant with your baby and am in love with you too, though I'm seriously debating as to why on that last part right now. Now can I please go back to sleep?"

I turned to walk back into the apartment, where Libby's hide-a-bed seemed to be calling me wistfully back to it's comforting arms, and was reaching to shut the door when he grabbed my wrist.

"Wait! I have something for you," he reached into his pocket with his free hand.

"And it couldn't have waited until later today?"

"Nope," he replied imitating the way I had said the word earlier. "I just finished it, and knew where you'd be now, so I figured it was the best time to give it to you."

I blinked at him.

"What do you mean you just finished it? Finished what?" I asked sleepily.

"This," he said producing a small charm bracelet from his pocket.

"Jimmy, I love you, but I may have to kill you," I groused. "You wake me up at 6 in the morning to give me a bracelet that you made for me. Jewelry is not going to get you out of this one."

"It's not just any bracelet. I modified the tracking device I gave you in junior high. I added a two-way communication portion to it. All you have to do is press this button here and we'll be able to talk, no matter where you are. It has a direct feed to my watch and there's no distance that can stop the signal."

"You know coming from anyone else, under any other circumstance, I'm pretty sure that would be considered stalking,"

He held up his hands in defense. It was then that I noticed they were shaking.

"I have two important people that I need to be looking out for now. I can't take the chances that something may happen to you," he blushed.

He took my hand in his rough ones. There was a small burnt patch on his left palm that I didn't remember being there the previous night and there were bits of ground in ash lining his nail beds. The trembling of his hands grew steadily and demonstrably stronger while he wrapped the thin silver chain around my wrist. He faltered at the clasp, and I stuck out my other hand to steady his.

"Why are you shaking?" I asked in a small voice after he had finally managed to secure the clasp.

"Seven cups of coffee," he beamed at me.

His eyes reminded me of the maniacal glint that often shone in Sheen's eyes on the days he didn't take his medication.

"What?!" I closed my eyes in vexation. "Why?"

"I wanted to get this done. It only took me 5 hours and seven cups of coffee to finish. I had to find a new power source since we used all the Neutronium on our trip to the Dark Matter dimension. I couldn't wait the regulated eighteen month time period for the red tape to clear with the U.S. Military to get me a new supply, so I took the liberty of making my own. Actually mine's probably better. It'll last longer anyway. It only took me four hours and a couple core implosions for me to get the chemical compound right. It was really tricky trying to mix the right combination of enzymes without them instantaneously igniting on contact. Thankfully after the first explosion I put the chemicals behind a blast shield, but not before it took out a chunk of a superficial wall in the lab and burned patches of my epidermis," he rolled up a sleeve to show me a scorch mark on his lower arm and I hissed at the sight. "Don't worry though the wall wasn't one that was key to the structural integrity of the lab. It was really just sheetrock."

"Jimmy!" I shouted finally losing what little patience I had left. "This could have waited. You! Home! Now! And I don't want to see you until you've had at least 12 hours sleep."

"Yes Mother," he said contritely.

I glared at him again, shaking my head this time. I grabbed his shirt and forced him down to my height.

"You listen here, James Isaac Neutron, I did not risk my heart yesterday by admitting my feelings for you, just to lose you to some dumb experiment, no matter how thoughtful and sweet it may be, because you're too tired to take the necessary precautions to keep yourself safe. Now go home and go to bed," I growled at him as I pressed my forehead to his.

"Yes ma'am," he flashed me another lopsided grin as he straightened himself.

"I expect to hear from you when you do get home," I held up the wrist that the bracelet was coiled around. "Or I'll come hunt you down, and you do not want that to happen."

He moved as if to leave but then stopped. He turned back around and the look that he had given me the night of my return was back. I had been right when I assumed that the expression was similar to the one his dad gave his mom. It was love.

"Oh and just for the record, I think you're gorgeous when you're cantankerous and sleep deprived," he said and leaned forward to place a kiss on my cheek. His lips brushed the corner of my mouth as I smiled for the first time that morning.

I had just clicked the door closed when I heard a groggy voice from the adjoining room.

"Who was that?" Libby asked, finally stumbling from her bedroom.

"Jimmy," I answered tersely. "The moron spent all night working on this," I held up the bracelet.

"Aw girl he loooves you," she gave me a sleepy grin.

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled. "I'm going back to bed!"

* * *

A.N. Hokay! So once again I got carried away and was going to have this chapter be WAYYYYYY different, but that didn't happen…


	26. Baby N

Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron; Nickelodeon, DNA productions and Cindy Vortex do.

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Jimmy's POV

It was amazingly freeing how admitting my feelings for Cindy had been. Now I could touch her, hold her, hug her, be more candidly myself around her without the fear of her spurning my love. The both of us were more relaxed around one another than I ever conjectured possible. The insecurities of our youth that had been so foundational to core of our childhood bickering rapidly faded. Still I was hesitant to kiss her. I already wrecked my confession by throwing a conniption fit. I wanted our first kiss to be something special, a good memory. Cindy deserved better.

Like we had upon her return, we assumed a routine of sorts. Our arm wrestling match had shown her that she still wasn't up to her normal standard and so Cindy, pedantic as ever, had practically demanded I grant her access to the gym I constructed in the lab, not that I minded at all. Secretly I had already begun reprogramming Vox to allow her admittance when I wasn't there. On the weekdays I would drive my car to Libby's apartment. Usually a stunningly ill-humored Cindy was the one to let me in the door. Although I desperately wanted to take her into my arms first thing every morning, I knew from years of scientific observation that attempting that with Cindy before she was fully awake would earn me, at the very least, a slap in the face. So while Cindy showered and dressed for the day, I would wander into the kitchen to make the girls breakfast, knowing that Cindy would be in a more receptive mood once she had ingested something. She told me frequently that what she really longed for was a giant cup of coffee, but both of us agreed, no caffeine for the pregnant lady.

After breakfast, we would relocate to my place. I didn't take the Hover-car anymore; there were too many risks involved with Cindy riding in it than I wanted to take. I never told her this though, knowing it would start another argument. Sometimes I would work on some of my less hazardous experiments. Cindy helped, but only when I let her. It caused more than one fight the first few times I didn't let her into the restricted section of the lab, but she eventually finally surrendered to my point. I wasn't having her or the baby exposed to some of the dangerous chemicals housed there. Instead we compromised and I promised that at least until after the baby was born, I wouldn't work on any high-risk experiments if she couldn't help me. The risks eventually outweighed either of our arguments.

From there we would workout for a while. The workouts she put the both of us through became ever increasingly difficult. I had to admit, that though I had the advantage when it came to strength, Cindy kicked my butt in speed and expertise. She'd nitpick at my technique in my taekwondo forms until I had everything as perfect as humanly possible. She'd always had an eye for correcting my faults, but unlike when we were kids, her corrections were lovingly finicky, instead of harsh. Unfortunately having a girlfriend whose keen eye caught more than most didn't always come in handy. Once we were both worn out, and after she had a quick shower, Cindy would go up to the house to make the two of us lunch. She explained that it was her way of repaying me for making breakfast each morning. The rest of the day, we would spend hanging out in the lab or visiting our friends, depending on our moods.

"Why are you so tired lately?" Cindy asked me one day after a couple weeks of our new schedule while we were relaxing on the couch. The both of us had been engrossed in separate books. Libby gave her a book about music and it's effects on fetuses that she eagerly devoured and her head was resting on a pillow in my lap as she stretched out. Cindy's back had been hurting that day, so she had propped another pillow underneath her. I absently played with her tresses while I read, but stopped to look down at her when she spoke up.

"I haven't slept through the night since… Well I don't know when," I lied, setting aside my own book on quantum mechanics. I knew exactly when my insomnia had started, but I hesitated to tell her.

"Why?" she asked softly. She placed her book on the floor and rested her hands on her stomach.

"I-I-I've been having nightmares," I admitted rubbing the back of my neck.

"Nightmares?" she gazed up at me, her eyes filled with concern.

"Yeah," I confessed, "They started after Strych kidnapped you."

Her brows snapped together and she remained deep in thought for a minute before asking, "Mind telling me about them?"

I sighed and she sympathetically rubbed my arm.

"Really there's only been three, and each one's altered as circumstances have changed." As I spoke she reached up and ran a finger over the shadows underneath my eyes. I snatched her hand and gently kissed her palm.

"When…" I started, "When we thought that my evil clone had you, I dreamt each night that I was the one torturing you; that it was _me_ causing your pain and suffering."

"You wouldn't do that," she whispered fervently. "It was just a dream."

"I know," I nodded. "It doesn't change the fact that I still spent two fruitless months in pursuit of the wrong person."

"Jimmy, how many times do I have to tell you to stop berating yourself for that?" she chided me. "If you had rescued me sooner I wouldn't have known that Calamitous was involved and we wouldn't know that the baby's ours, not Strych's."

She pulled her hand down to her stomach, taking my hand with her. She firmly pressed my palm to the growing life inside. I smiled weakly.

"So you've told me," I said, apathetically.

I would have stopped there, but she reminded me empathetically, "You said there were three."

"Yeah," I grumbled not wanting to share the rest. I hadn't wanted to reveal any of them with her, to keep her from worrying about me, but the look of compassion etched into her face made me continue. "After we rescued you, I would dream that I was paralyzed. I would watch as Strych held… held a knife to your… throat. He'd… he'd change his grasp and stab you in your stomach and then in your…"

I couldn't force the words out, so I motioned to my neck with my free hand. Her grip on my other hand increased and I was grateful for the pressure.

"I'm pretty sure it was my subconscious telling me that you were pregnant, but I was more concerned that you… you… died." The last word came out choked.

"And after you found out about the baby they changed again, didn't they?" she asked in a tiny voice.

My yes came out as a whisper as I thought of the newest dream that had begun beleaguering me. She pressed her lips into a firm frown. I couldn't look her in the eye anymore. Instead I stared at an invisible stain on the wall.

The words came out in a rush, as though the faster they came out the less they would hurt. "It starts innocent enough. You and me, together not doing anything particular, just being with each other. When we're jumped in an alleyway. Strych's men separate us and hold me back. Every night, I watch helpless while he tears the baby from your womb with a rusty scalpel. He only sticks around long enough to gloat and to show me that the baby has your green eyes and then disappears, taking our son with him. Somehow I escape his goons and make it to your side, but it's already too late."

Unwelcome tears threatened to build in my eyes. I ran my hand through my hair and brought my elbow to rest on the arm of the couch, letting my head fall into my open palm. I shuddered, remembering the horror and dread I felt each night as I walked to my bed, knowing what would be waiting for me as soon as I closed my eyes. I don't know how long I sat there staring into space, dwelling on the bane of my existence.

"Jimmy?" Cindy called in a low voice, breaking me out of my morose musings. My eyes snapped back down to her face.

"I won't let that happen to you Cin. I won't!" I suddenly exploded, and I slammed my fist against the arm of the couch. I felt myself trembling with pent up rage and fear.

"Jimmy," she pleaded again. Her voice was compelling as she reached one hand up to caress my face, "It's not going to. Would you stop worrying?"

"It's just that," I mumbled, returning to my vigil of staring out in front of me. "Strych may still be out there. They never found his body."

"I know, but losing sleep over it isn't doing anyone any good. Now come here. I've got an idea," she stood and I braced her as she pulled herself to her feet.

"What are you doing?" I asked as she ordered Goddard to get out the spare air mattress I kept in the lab.

"You're going to take a nap," she commanded. She looked at me as though it was the most obvious answer.

"But-" I attempted to say, but was cut off.

"No buts mister! There's no way that Strych can break through Vox's security protocols, you've said so yourself. Sheen and Libby are due here in six hours and I am not having my boyfriend fall asleep on our double date," she called from the other side of the lab, collecting pillows and blankets. I attempted to help her, but she waved me aside preferring to do it alone.

"What's with you? Always telling me to go to sleep. If I didn't know any better I would swear that you wanted to get me into bed," the words tumbled from my lips. I felt my cheeks blaze and I clapped a hand over my mouth.

She chuckled lightly, "You're as bad as Sheen."

"Sorry, sorry," I apologized for my crassness.

"I know," she replied winking at me, "Just a Freudian slip."

Together with Goddard's help she made the bed, tossing an extra set of pillows onto the other side. She walked back over and pushed me onto the bed. When I gave her an inquiring look and pointed to the additional pillows, she rolled her eyes at me.

"That's for me, genius," she responded, but I must have looked skeptical because she continued.

"Pregnant," she waved a hand in front of her stomach. "I get tired too. I'm gonna try to get a cat nap in as soon as you're out, and here I thought you were the smarter one in this relationship."

"Cindy, I'm not going to be able to sleep." I told her dryly.

"You will," she said, a knowing look in her eye.

"How?" I rolled my eyes.

"I want to try something. Now lay down or I will make you," she growled.

I sighed and I stretched out on the bed, realizing I was more exhausted than I originally thought. Still my mind wouldn't settle. It didn't help that there was going to be a seductively beautiful girl lying next to me. It was laborious enough having to suppress the normal amounts of testosterone that flooded my veins upon seeing Cindy everyday, now being forced to lie next to her... I let out a soft groan hoping she wouldn't hear me. Rolling over, I watched Cindy delicately place herself onto the bed. I reached out to close the gap between us, but she slapped a hand away.

"Un-uh," she scolded. "Let me get cozy first."

She shifted on the bed for a few minutes before settling into a comfortable position. I turned to her once she looked set and reached for her again.

"Hold still," she demanded.

"What are you doing?" I repeated tiredly.

"I told you, I want to try something. Your mom was telling me about it." Her voice sounded exasperated as well as exhausted.

"You've been talking to my mom?" I questioned.

"Yeah. What? You think the only people I talk to anymore are you and Libby?" she rolled eyes again. "I've been getting real world baby advice from her. You know, what to expect, things to look out for, random tips that only an experienced mother would know. There's only so much that you can learn from the Internet and through books, and she's the only mother I know who'll still talk to me." Her eyes grew bitter as she thought of her own mother and I took her hand in my own.

"Libby's mom still talks to you, and Mrs. Wheezer was asking about you yesterday," I reminded her. We had given up on keeping her return a secret when her mother kicked her out of the house. Fortunately there hadn't been any immediate repercussions to making her rescue public.

She shook her head and replied, "Anyway she was telling me about something she used to do with you when you were little that always put you under when you were having trouble sleeping."

I wracked my brain trying to think of what Mom had done when I was little. The only thing that came to mind was the inane song that Carl's mom sang to him while she rubbed his stomach, but I knew that couldn't possibly be it. I watched as she reached out one of her hands and gently began to stroke my hair. Suddenly the memories of my mom rubbing my head until I finally fell asleep came flooding back to me.

"She used to do this every night when I had a bad dream," I recalled in a hushed whisper. "The last time I remember her doing this was right after we moved here. It was the night before I met Carl and Sheen and I was worried that I wasn't going to make any friends."

"She told me," Cindy smiled lethargically and held a soft finger to my lips. "No more talking; just sleep."

I closed my eyes, reveling in the feel of her touch. I would have fallen straight to sleep, but a random thought occurred to me.

"Have you given any thought as what you're going to do after the wedding?" I asked, peeking one eye open.

She had shut her eyes as well, but at the unexpectedness of my question they popped open in surprise. "I was thinking of taking some classes at the community college. You know, staying local. I still have some money saved up and Libby's apartment manager is willing to let me finish out her lease. Hopefully I can get a part time job somewhere. Why do you ask?" she replied.

"No reason," I smiled and quickly changed the topic. "You know if Sheen saw the two of us like this he'd come up with another set of obscene remarks."

"Jimmy," she spoke in a slightly aggravated tone. "Would you please just shut up and let me practice being a mommy right now?"

"Yes Ma'am," I chuckled at her, closing my eyes again. "Though I don't see why you need practice. You're going to be a great mom anyway."

She pulled her hand from my head and caught me unprepared when she punched me roughly in the shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?" I asked.

"Cause you're patronizing me again, Nerdtron," she growled.

"Am not. I was just trying to give you a compliment. I think I'm entitled to giving my girlfriend a sincere accolade every once in a while."

I cringed as her fist connected with my shoulder a second time. It was definitely going to leave a bruise.

"Cindy!" I yelled softly, remembering just in time that she was mere inches from my face and would most likely clobber me if I screamed in her face, "Fine! I take it back then, if you're gonna beat me up for telling you how I think you're going to make marvelous mother."

"Just go to sleep and stop irritating me," she scolded me again.

"If you beat our kids like this, you're going to be a terrible mother," I grumbled not really meaning it.

"I wouldn't do that to the baby," her voice sounded shocked for a moment for some reason, but then took on a more flirtatious tone, "I save that for you."

She gave me a subdued whack on the shoulder, "for good measure," I heard her mumble, before returning her hand to my hair. I scooted closer to her and placed a protective hand around her waist, pulling the blankets more snugly around us. Her toes tickled the tops of my feet and she placed the hand not stroking my hair on my chest. I tucked her head close to mine and pressed a kiss onto her forehead. She slowly worked her fingers in small circles into my scalp, occasionally brushing my ear and the sides of my face gently. I felt my body relax into the tender touch. My eyes closed and my breathing slowed. I found myself drifting lightly when Cindy started humming a soft lullaby.

"Hey Cin," I whispered just before sleep completely claimed me. "I love you."

"I love you too, Jimmy," she murmured softly and though my eyes were closed I could tell that she was smiling.

It was the first dreamless sleep I had in months. The only thing that filled my mind was the soft, warm feeling of the girl next to me, her gentle song, and her jasmine scented hair. Fie upon the rest of the world. If I could spend my entire life like that I would have.

I awoke to a sound that I would never get tired of hearing for the rest of my life, Cindy's giggle. I opened my eyes slowly. We had shifted, or rather she had shifted, while I slept. Cindy lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. From what I could tell she had attempting to laugh softly so as to not wake me, but the source of her hysterics was beyond me.

"What's so funny?" I mumbled sleepily.

"Hey there sleepy head. Look who's finally awake," she murmured softly as she turned her head to me. "You slept like five hours."

I stretched an arm up in the air and turned it to reach out for her. Cindy ruffled my hair playfully. She laughed again, a deep throaty chuckle that made me wonder as to where it originated.

I propped my head up on my other hand and inquired, "What's so entertaining?"

"I," she giggled, "I woke up about an hour ago. You woke me up. You were mumbling in your sleep again," she poked a finger into my chest.

"What did I say?" I grumbled, imagining what ludicrous things may have floated out of my mouth.

"Nothing much. Random snippets here and there. At one point I think you were lecturing someone about genetics, because you kept repeating the words: deoxyribonucleic acid, alleles, and peptides incoherently," she snickered again. "I tried to wake you about a half hour ago, mostly cause your arm was smothering me, but instead you told me you loved me."

"Huh, I don't remember dreaming," I said, "And I suppose you found that all very hilarious."

"It was," she giggled. "But that's not what's making me laugh."

"Really? Pray tell what is then,"

To answer my question she grasped my hand, lacing our hands together, and placed it on her abdomen. There was a significant pause, but nothing happened. I shifted my gaze back to her and gave her confused look.

"Just wait," she whispered.

"What am I waiting for?" I whispered back, "And why are we whispering?"

"Just wait Mister Impatient Pants," she smiled a deep genuine smile that reached all the way to her eyes. They glittered with a sparkle I had never seen before, but thoroughly enjoyed. I would have stared into those twinkling gems forever if I could have, but a sudden thump against my hand drew my attention back to my hand on her stomach. She laughed another time.

"What the… Was that?" I started to ask, but another bump against my palm stopped me.

My jaw dropped, and she laughed louder than before. Cindy nodded and though it seemed unfeasible, her smile grew wider. I watched in awe while the baby kicked various spots on her stomach, twisting this way and that.

"It tickles," she explained. "The kicking started right after you started talking. I think the baby likes the sound of your voice. Either that or finds it super irritating," Cindy smirked.

"Well at least we know who he takes after," I chuckled after a while.

"Yeah, the trouble-making genius of a father," she beamed back at me.

"Ha, ha," I rolled my eyes as I replied, but I laughed with her when she burst into a fit of giggles.

She suddenly pulled a sullen face, "And what is with this _he_ business? I thought we discussed that we wanted it to be a surprise."

"I know, I know. There's no need to look so petulant," I prodded the corner of her mouth, forcing it into an asymmetrical grin.

We lay intertwined until the alarm that Cindy set before we laid down sounded, reminding us that we had a date to keep. Cindy sighed, and playfully pushed my arm off of her. She stiffly rose from the nest we had made.

"Aww," I pouted melodramatically. I stretched my body chaotically across the bed, throwing back the blankets. I pulled my face, trying to make it appear to be a pleading puppy dog look.

"I need to clean up. Unfortunately for me I don't look good with bed head, unlike some handsome, big headed geniuses I know," she tossed me a saucy smile over her shoulder.

I mussed my hair further, climbing from the bed as well, and told her, "Fine, fine you and Baby N go doll yourselves up."

"Baby N?" she turned and scoffed. "Really Jimmy? Really?"

"Well since we technically don't know what the sex of the baby is, and you keep insisting that there's a remotely miniscule possibility that it may not be a boy; I just figured we had to call it something other than… it for now. I certainly can't pick out a name at random and calling the baby 'it' all the time feels derogatory," I looked at her, my face somber.

"But Baby N?" She bit back a chuckle and I could tell she was trying to keep her face from smiling. "That's almost as bad as the N-Men, and who says we don't know the sex of the baby?"

"Well I am the baby's father!" I slammed my fists on my hips indignantly. She looked like she was fighting to not giggle. It took me a second to realize why. I looked just like her when she was angry. I raised my brows at her.

"But Baby N?" she mocked. Cindy turned to go change and I watched, mesmerized by her hips swinging back and forth. She had almost made it to the doorway, when the second part of her statement hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Wait!" I scrambled over the back of the couch to stop her. I nearly fell face first into the concrete when I launched myself over the back of the couch, but luckily I caught myself on a table. I grabbed one of her arms and spun her around.

"Yes?" she asked coyly, as if knowing what I was going to ask next.

"When you said… what do you mean by…" I fumbled for a moment. "You know what we're having?" I couldn't contain the excitement I felt.

"Well," she smiled kittenishly, "I may have overheard the doctors discussing the sex of the baby while I was doped up. At least I'm pretty sure I did."

"And?" I demanded.

"And what?" her green eyes twinkled mischievously.

"What is it? What are we having?"

"We're having a baby of course," her honeyed words were accompanied by a teasing smile. She was obviously enjoying watching me squirm.

"Cindy," I growled at her. I took a step toward her and instinctually she retreated, creating more space between us. It gave me an idea. I backed her up against the door jam attempting a rudimentary psychological ploy. Cindy jumped, startled that she had run into the door, but still I couldn't intimidate her into telling me the answer that she knew that I was dying to know. She must have figured out what I was trying to do.

"Yes," she smiled as sweetly as she could.

"You know what I mean," I planted on hand firmly next her head onto the wall. My arm grazed her ear and I leaned in close to growl softly, "Why do you have to be so unrelenting?"

"Cause it's so much fun," she admitted unremorsefully while she tried to wiggle out of my grasp, but my free hand firmly caught her hip, compelling her to stay put.

"Just tell me!" I snarled, exasperated.

"Tell you what?" Cindy's bright eyes glinted with mischief as she toyed with my head. She knew she was goading me by dangling that tidbit of information in front of me. No one except Cindy had the ability or drive to get me hot under the collar like that. Though I was incensed, the warm feeling that holding Cindy always generated didn't escape my notice. Just arguing with the intense bewitching woman made me ache for her more. The conflicting emotions flooded my brain. Internally warring between my lustful hormonally driven nineteen-year-old body and my inquisitive scientist side, I let out a low groan.

I was finally so aggravated, with myself and with Cindy's teasing that I shouted at her, "Pukin' Pluto! Cindy! You had better tell me or…"

"Or what?"

I leaned closer to her face, bending my head down to her level and whispered in my lowest most menacing register, "Or I'll make you."

Cindy snorted and I could feel her breath on my face. Poking a finger into my chest as a challenge, she asked, "How are you going to do that?"

She shifted one hip to the side, and the hand that I had placed there moved with it. Her smug grin drew my attention to her lips. It inspired a different plan. In that instant I knew exactly how I was going to make her tell me. I moved my hand away from the wall and used it to cup her chin, drawing her face nearer. The tip of my nose brushed hers.

My mouth, mere millimeters above Cindy's, curled into a smile as I whispered, "I have my ways."

* * *

A.N. Bwahahahahaha! Don't hate me too much for leaving you all like this, but I couldn't resist… So as Johnny Storm says in The Fantastic Four, "Flame on!"


	27. Nice

Disclaimer: This chapter is too great for a clever disclaimer, so I'll just state it plainly. I don't own Jimmy Neutron.

A.N. #1: Someone asked about the timeline. Cindy's about 6 ½ months pregnant, it's been a couple weeks since they admitted they loved each other, and there's about a month and a half before Sheen and Libby's wedding.

A.N. #2: I know this chapter's really long, but I couldn't figure out a way to break it up, so just deal with it… Ya'll are gonna love it anyway.

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Cindy's POV

Jimmy's face hovered just above my own. One strong hand rested securely on my hip. The other cradled my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye. He was so close. His musky scent overwhelmed my senses, making me lose focus on everything else.

"I have my ways," he whispered, provocatively.

"Yeah right. Like what?" I breathed, unaware of what I was really saying.

"Like this," he murmured just above my lips.

Jimmy's husky voice, with its rich deep tenor, sent shivers up and down my spine. Unconsciously I felt my body lean into his. My pulse quickened, and my breath came in short gasps. I stared into his eyes, captured by the look of unbridled passion that flamed in them.

_What were we arguing about again?_

Suddenly any witty retort I may have been ready with died on my tongue. The only thing I could concentrate on was Jimmy's face creeping slower and slower towards mine. I may have been torturing him mentally, but he was obviously well versed in playing mind games too. My breathing hitched and my heart nearly stopped as his lips barely grazed mine.

I could tell he tried to restrain himself. I knew all along that he had been reigning in his desire for the last couple weeks; that something had been holding him back. He told me later that he only meant to tease me, lead me on a little, leave me wanting more. However whatever self-control Jimmy still possessed flew out the window when I unintentionally drew in a sharp breath.

His lips collided into mine in a heart-wrenching kiss. It grew hungrier, needier with every second that passed. I think all the years of pent up sexual tension coupled with the months of fear, not knowing if we would ever see each other again, finally culminated in that one kiss. My lips moved of their own accord matching Jimmy's, play for play. I dreamed of this day; our first official kiss. Never had I imagined it would be this intense, this consuming. I was in heaven and yet heaven was a complete blur. My brain came to a standstill, blocking out everything and losing what tentative control of my senses I claimed to have. At the same time I was acutely aware of every inch of him.

A whimper escaped my lips and it seemed to encourage Jimmy's advances. He deepened the kiss, pushing me further into the door jam until the metal dug into my shoulder blades. It went unnoticed though; I was too focused on Jimmy's lips and hands. One of his hands pressed into the small of my back, forcing the two of us impossibly closer together. The other hand, the one that started on my hips, roamed freely across my face, my shoulders, my collarbone, making my skin burn pleasingly as it moved. Pulling the rest of the few strands left in my hair tie free, his hand tangled itself into my hair that was already disheveled from our nap.

I threw every ounce of my passion and desire for this man into returning his kiss, snaking my hands up around his neck. Latching onto his hair with my right hand, I pulled his face tighter to my own. For a second I thought I might have pulled too hard because he muttered a low guttural moan, but it was of little consequence at that point. I just wanted him closer. My left hand traced the planes of his face, down his neck to his chest. He nibbled on my lip and I whimpered again. My knees turned to jelly, giving out on me, and I was thankful for his muscular arms and the entryway holding me up. I clung to him, letting him bear my full weight, knowing there would be no possible way my liquefied legs would be able to support me.

Days could have passed, the world could have come crashing down around us, but neither of us would have noticed. Finally though, in desperate need of oxygen, our lips separated. He must have realized then that we were flattened against the frame of the door to the bathroom. Jimmy stepped back and I stumbled forward, legs still unsteady, right back into his arms. He held me tightly as our breathing came in ragged pants. While he leaned his cheek against the top of my head, I rested my head against his chest. My head lay right on top of his heart, and I listened to it beat. It sounded like a hummingbird's heart, flying at an incredible rate. My heart beat a matching tempo. When at long last it seemed that we caught our breath, I shifted a little. He lifted his head off mine and I adjusted my face to view him properly. Jimmy's cerulean eyes gleamed from underneath heavy-hooded lids. I heaved a great sigh and smiled dreamily up at him.

"That was…" Jimmy's brows knitted together as he searched for the words to adequately describe what just happened, but none must have come to mind.

"Nice," Jimmy finished his sentence and grinned at me like a fool.

"Nice? That's the best you can come up with?" my reproach was soft and playful, and I cocked an eyebrow at him. "It's a good thing I didn't fall in love with you for your ability to describe things."

He attempted to fix his face into a mask of despondency, like I actually hurt his feelings, but he couldn't contain a roguish smile from stealing it's way into his expression. I could feel the spontaneous laughter only Jimmy could evoke waiting on the edge of my lips, while I toyed with the hair at the nape of his neck.

"What do you want me to say? Cause I know there's no scientific classification for what just happened. Hmmm what to say? What to say?" he pulled his hand free from my hair to tap his chin with his index finger mockingly, while the other remained firmly behind my back. "What _could_ I say? That it was enjoyable? Pleasant? Agreeable? Good? Sure I'll agree to those. Delightful? Marvelous? Lovely? Awesome? Wondrous? You can have those too! Gratifying? Satisfying? Well gratifying, yes, but satisfying? Hell no! It just makes me want to kiss you more! I'd gladly sacrifice brain cells to oxygen deprivation to keep on kissing you."

"Jimmy," I chuckled and attempted to chide him further. He wasn't having any of it though as he continued his rant.

"Are those not descriptive enough? Let's try hedonistic? Sexual? Sensual? Erotic? Arousing? I know you were jealous of Betty Quinlin when we were younger, but sweetheart, Betty Quinlin could never match up to that... Forgive my salaciousness, but I've never wanted you more, pregnant and all. Only my strong sense of responsibility to the moral imperative keeps me from taking this further."

"Jimmy!" I gasped slightly shocked at the twist my teasing made him take. My hands came around to rest on his chest as I shoved him lightly.

"Sorry, sorry. I shouldn't let myself get carried away. You are a lady after all," he lifted his hand off my back to rake it through his tangled hair. "What about astonishing though? I know! Surprising, cause I was not expecting it to be _that_ great? Great! What about great? Stunning? Astounding? Staggering? Well you're the one who did the staggering. Breathtaking? Awe-inspiring? Spectacular? Stupendous? Would you classify it as phenomenal? Jaw-dropping? Incredible? Unbelievable? Stupefying? Mind-blowing? Why do you think I said nice? My brain shut down."

"Jimmy! Shut up!" I grabbed his shirt roughly, a tad annoyed at his tirade.

He started to protest. Knowing Jimmy, he was probably ready with a thousand more terms to call our kiss, but I pulled him back down to my face and halted anything more that may have come from his lips by engaging them in other activities. Our second kiss was just as "nice" as our first had been. Even better, this time I knew what to expect and was ready for the mind-numbing pleasure that came from it.

When we finally broke apart I smirked up at him smugly. Leaning back, I commented, "Nerdtron, has anyone ever told you, you talk too much?"

"So you keep telling me," he snickered wryly and rolled his eyes.

"Darn right. If somebody has to, it may as well be me," I giggled.

We laughed together for a while. Jimmy's arms constricted around me; his opposite hands stroked up and down my arms gently. I rubbed my nose into the soft fabric of the grey, oversized t-shirt he wore to bed, eliciting another chuckle from him. Eventually he looked down at me expectantly.

"So are you going to answer my question now?" he asked. He looked like a kid waiting for a birthday present. Blowing a stray strand of hair out of my eyes, I peered up at him through my lashes.

"What question?" I replied, and shot him a sly grin.

"The sex of the baby. What are we having? A boy or a girl?"

"Oh _that_ question."

"Yes _that_ question!"

"Well, you're just gonna have to wait a couple more months aren't you?" I said, standing on my tiptoes to give him a small peck on the cheek. He grumbled something under his breath. With a quirked eyebrow, I asked him what it was that he was muttering unintelligibly.

"You're incorrigible, you know that right?" he griped. "I would have thought kissing you senseless would have made you more apt to tell me."

"You're welcome to test that hypothesis any time you want, Mr. Mad Scientist, if you think that it will change my mind, but right now I really do need to clean up before Sheen and Libby get here."

"Alright," he sighed, reluctantly releasing me. "I'll meet you up at the house when you're done."

"Sounds good. Me and _Baby N_ have some work to do."

He leaned down to plant a chaste kiss on my lips. I watched, fighting laughter again, as Jimmy practically skipped to the stairwell. I shook my head and walked into the bathroom, where the clothes Libby and I painstakingly picked out were waiting for me.

_

* * *

45 minutes later_

Meticulously I dressed and primped myself. I would have been ready to go sooner, but the nap and Jimmy's kiss left my hair in shambles. It took an extra twenty minutes of wrestling with a flat iron to fix the damage. Finally when I had done everything possible to prep myself for our date, I bounded excitedly up the stairs. I had just walked through the back door, approaching the staircase in the interior of his house to sneak upstairs without Jimmy noticing, when something caught my ear.

"Mom," I heard Jimmy say. "How'd you know Dad was the one?"

I stopped in my tracks. My jaw hit the floor and I sucked in a deep breath. I hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but I found myself tiptoeing towards the kitchen to peer around the corner. He was sitting at the kitchen table staring at his mother with rapt attention. His back was to the entryway where I hid, so I knew he couldn't see me. At his question, Mrs. Neutron sat down next to him and placed a mothering hand on his shoulder.

"Isn't this really a question for your father?" she asked.

"I tried already," he sighed, "but he started babbling about pies and when the mallard drake sees the female's feathers and then started carrying on about…" he groaned, frustrated with his father's answer. "That's when I left."

"Oh," his mom replied, "Well, your father and I, honey, with your father I just knew. I looked into his eyes and knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I know you're probably looking for some scientific explanation, but sometimes there isn't one."

"Oh," he muttered and ran a hand through his hair.

"What brought this up?" she tilted her head and locked her gaze with Jimmy's.

"Dunno. Just been thinking a lot lately," he tried to sound nonchalant, but there was something in his voice that hinted at more.

"Jimmy," she asked softly. "Are you thinking about asking Cindy to-"

"Why are we hiding?" a deep masculine voice interrupted from over my shoulder, nearly giving me a heart attack.

Whirling around, I found Sheen and Libby standing behind me. Libby's hands were placed on her hips. I could tell by the look in her eye that she knew exactly why I had scrunched myself against the wall. I fought to hide the blush that crept into my face as my embarrassment grew.

"Are we playing a game of hide-and-seek?" Sheen looked to Libby, excited about the prospect, when I remained speechless. "Why does no one tell me these things?! I gotta go find a good spot." His final words were punctuated by the closing of Jimmy's front door as he ran out to conceal himself.

"Sometimes I wonder why I ever agreed to marry that man," Libby shook her head slowly.

"I've been wondering the same thing for years," I giggled.

She lowered her voice and whispered to me, "Ya gonna tell me why you were spyin' on Jimmy just now?"

"Later," I hissed, waving a hand to shush her in case Jimmy happened to appear as suddenly as she had, "After we get back to the apartment."

She nodded and quickly asked, "So did you get it?"

I started to shake my head, but Libby quickly motioned to me that someone was approaching. A pair of familiar sturdy arms wrapped quietly around my waist and Jimmy rested his chin on the top of my head.

"Get what?" he asked.

"Um… ah… My purse. I left it down in the lab."

"Oh. Where'd you leave it? I'll go grab it real quick," he offered.

"Actually do you think you could go find Sheen? He's under the impression we're playing hide-and-seek."

"He is?"

"Hey don't look at me. He's your best friend," I snorted.

"Who's also marrying _your_ best friend, I would like to point out,"

"I can't be held accountable for her heinous taste in men," I snapped back.

"Oh I know. Just look at your own inclination," he chuckled and I twisted my head to look at him at him in mock incredulity.

"Hello, said best friend standin' right in front of y'all," Libby snapped her fingers at the two of us.

"Libby and I'll go get it, and meet you two out at the car," I motioned quickly back and forth between Libby and myself, changing the subject abruptly.

"Alright, but don't take too long, or I'll have to come down after you," he said. Jimmy spun me around, kissed me lightly on the lips and strode purposefully out of the house to search for his neurotic best friend.

"Quick! Go grab my purse!" I shouted as soon as the door clicked shut. "It's in the bathroom next to my makeup bag, and hurry! Knowing Jimmy he already knows where Sheen's hiding, so we don't have much time."

I didn't wait to see if Libby followed my instructions. I dashed up the stairs to Jimmy's room and rummaged through drawer after drawer before I found what I was looking for. I folded it neatly under one arm and sprinted back downstairs. Breathless, I met Libby at the doorway. I quickly shoved my prize into the purse and swinging the bag over one shoulder, threw open the door. Jimmy and Sheen were laughing, standing next to Sheen's new car, though car would have been the loosest word I would have used to describe the hunk of metal he purchased to replace the car they left at Strych's base. Sheen had one arm around Jimmy's neck and both boys playfully exchanged jabs to each other's stomach. When Libby and I crossed the threshold they released one another and rushed to join us.

"Sheen, I'm telling you, you can't drive," Jimmy told his best friend. They had obviously been having this argument for some time now.

"Aww man," our Latino friend sulked. "I haven't been in an accident in like two weeks."

"Nope not taking any chances. You got your future Mrs. and my girl to think about this time."

"Jimmy just let him drive," Libby scolded him in a soft voice, attempting to be diplomatic. "The only time he gets in wrecks is when he's driving alone anyway. I'll be there to keep him in check."

"You know," I agreed, "She does have a point."

Libby and Sheen turned to me with indistinguishably similar looks of skepticism. I rolled my eyes. Jimmy looked at me, a cunning expression showing in only his eyes. He knew what I was doing, having been the one to engineer the plan in the first place and so made no _real_ protest. I took Jimmy's hand and walked him to the back of the crusty black car. Flinging open the door, I shoved him into it before he could offer up any more fraudulent complaints.

"Forgive my boyfriend," I told Sheen as I sat myself more decorously onto the seat. "Sometimes he's too protective for his own good."

Jimmy grumbled under his breath while our friends climbed into the car. Sheen held open Libby's door in a dramatic show of gallantry. She giggled lightly as he bowed to her, offering her his hand. He kissed the back of her hand gently, shut the door, and quickly ruined his chivalrous appearance by clambering excitedly over the hood of the car, eager to get to the movies. Libby laughed at his antics and I repressed my own giggle as well. No longer did Libby and Sheen's public displays of affection send pangs of jealousy to my heart. Sighing, I gazed at Jimmy and smiled.

"What?" he glanced at me out of the corner of one eye.

"Nothing. I'm just really happy."

"Aww!" Sheen and Libby cooed in unison from the front seat, "They're so cute."

"Yup that's us, sickeningly cute," Jimmy retorted tersely, but he smiled at me as he said it.

I closed my eyes and laughed, silently prepping myself for an interesting ride. Fortunately for us, Sheen drove to the movie in record safety as well as time. I don't know how he ever talked Jimmy into letting the three of us see the newest remake of the Ultra Lord movie with him, but Sheen must have pulled out all the stops because neither Jimmy nor Libby protested when Sheen purchased tickets for himself and his fiancée.

A couple boring hours later we headed back to the car. Libby stroked Sheen's hand as they walked in front of us, trying to console him. His stunned silence reflected the shock and awe he felt upon the conclusion of the movie, where Ultra Lord was forced to save his "Ultra-love" by sacrificing himself. Jimmy and I hung back, quietly debating over some of the more ridiculous moments in the movie, trying to keep our volume down so as not to disturb Sheen out of his horrified reverie. We must not have been quiet enough because Libby turned to us.

"Oh hey your bickerin' reminds me," Libby stated as we exited the theater breaking up the playful argument that Jimmy and I had just begun over the movie's glaring plot holes. "Which one?"

"Which one what?" I asked. I looked to Sheen and Jimmy hoping that they had an answer but they both shrugged noncommittally. After digging through her purse for a moment, she held up two burned CD's in front of me.

"Which one do you want for your baby music? I gave you that book for a reason. I ain't lettin' my BFF's baby startin' life without experiencin' some of the best music the world has to offer. You read the study that says it helps ease their level of emotional stress, and with you two fightin' all the time, your child's gonna need all the help he or she is gonna get," she placed her hands defiantly on her hips while she lectured me.

"Oh," I murmured.

"One of them is some classical music remixed to be funkalicious. Ya know that Mozart guy's music's supposed to boost brain IQ and all. Though your kid ain't gonna need any help there. The other is a mix lullabies that our parents used ta sing to us when we were kids. Jimmy and Carl's moms just got me the songs yesterday an' Sheen's dad gave me a digital copy of a song that his mom used ta sing to him and his sister before she passed. My mama gave me a copy of mine when I moved out. Oh and I got a hold of your dad a week ago and he emailed me a link to the song he used to sing to you."

Libby sounded like she was trying to be cool about it, but I knew that it had been a lot of hard work tracking down those songs. Appreciative tears filled my eyes as I ran to her side.

"Oh Libbs," I cried throwing my arms around her shoulders.

"Ch! Don't think anythin' of it," she replied chuckling while I wiped the tears from my face.

"Hormones," Jimmy commented dryly, approaching the two of us at a more levelheaded and steadfast pace. He placed a hand on my back and I let go of Libby to bury my face into his chest. "Just wait until you have to go through this, Sheen."

Sheen blanched and his face turned paler than it had been at the end of the credits of the movie.

"Shut up, Nerdtron," I muttered, punching him lightly in the shoulder.

"Ow! Cindy that's the arm you already bruised this afternoon," he whined, but when he pressed a kiss into my hair, I knew he wasn't really upset.

Sheen recovered from his trance-like state to comment, "Dude TMI! I didn't need to know that you like it rough, Jim!"

It was the first time Sheen singled out just Jimmy for the subject of his frivolous off-color jesting. I snorted and bit back a giggle at Sheen's wisecrack.

"Well if I did, I picked the right girl for it," Jimmy retorted.

"Hey!" I cried, slapping Jimmy's shoulder sharply with my open palm. It made a resounding crack as my hand connected with his bare arm.

He winked at me and turned to Sheen, "See what I mean?"

I growled at him and as indignant as I was feeling at the moment, crossed my arms over my chest. The four of us climbed into the car and headed back to Libby's apartment. When we walked back into the apartment I threw the purse into Libby's bedroom, knowing when she reappeared after changing into more comfortable clothes she would have transferred the item I stole from Jimmy's room into one of her bags. While she changed, I made us dinner, which we all devoured heartily. After dinner Libby made up the excuse that she needed to run to the store and left the apartment with Sheen.

"You know what would be fun?" I asked Jimmy as I finished drying the dishes. "A walk in the park, just the two of us,"

"Ooooor..." he drew the word out, making it into two syllables, "We could go back to the lab. You know work on testing that hypothesis I presented to you earlier today…" he waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "That would be fun, and a whole lot safer."

"Safer," I scoffed for a moment, before returning to my original point, "We never have fun."

"We have fun. I can think of something fun we can do right now," he gave me a cheeky grin, taking the dish from my hand to place it on the dish rack.

"You know what I mean. When have we just had a night of fun without stopping to think about the consequences of what going out in public entails? I'll tell you when, Jimmy. Never. First it was cause I was still recovering and too weak. Now it's cause we're both too afraid that Strych will come back and catch us when we've let our guard down. It was hard enough talking you into the going to the movies today. But you know what?! I'm sick of it! I'm sick of being afraid! I'm sick of cowing down to an invisible enemy that may or may not come back. I just want to take a walk in the park with my boyfriend. Just be Jimmy and Cindy for one night. Is that too much to ask?"

"Fine we'll take a walk in the park. Though admittedly, Vortex, I don't know what's gotten you so venturesome tonight."

I hastily retrieved the spare key to Libby's apartment. Jimmy laced his fingers with mine as we walked out into the night. The park was a familiar one. It lay at the halfway point of Libby's apartment and Jimmy's place. Heading down a path towards the playground area, we continued in silence until we reached the swing set. Unceremoniously I plopped down on the nearest swing. Jimmy walked around behind me and held onto the chain for a moment. I breathed a mournful sigh.

"Penny for your thoughts?" he asked quietly.

"A penny? My thoughts are only worth a penny to you?" I leaned back on the swing to roll my eyes at him.

"You know your thoughts are priceless to me," he said kissing me on the cheek. "Now tell me. What's got you so melancholy?"

I gave him a sort of half grimace, "When did we turn into an old married couple? We're only 19."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, boring. We used to go on adventures and pull pranks on each other as kids. Why'd it have to stop?"

"I guess we just grew up, Cin. It's part of life."

"Well, life just sucks then," I sulked.

"Yeah I guess it does, but hey we still pull our share of practical jokes. You still have a little something up your sleeve for Sheen at the bachelor party. Don't forget that."

"But we're so serious all the time," I whined, not really meaning it.

"Cindy, when we know that Strych is gone for good I'm sure we'll go back to playing pranks on each other like we used to. Truthfully, I miss it too," he earned a small smile for that declaration.

Jimmy pushed me on the swing for a while. Our pleasant silence stretched out, only to be broken by the metallic squeak of chains grinding back and forth. A new noise, the sound of fabric flapping in the cool summer breeze, was only detectable to those paying attention for the cue. I felt the buzz of my cell phone vibrate twice in my pocket.

'_Good! Libby's here,' _I thought.

"I'm glad that you feel that way," I said, altering the tone of my voice and looking back at him.

"What did you do?" he looked at me, suspicion spreading across his face. His eyes narrowed, my caprice instantly alerting him to the fact that I had arranged something devious without his knowledge.

"Oh nothing," I said, leaping from the swing and stepping a few yards away. I spun around to face him. "But I wouldn't look behind you if I were you."

I pointed to the flagpole over his shoulder. He turned to see what I had motioned to and his jaw dropped.

"Are those my…?"

He trailed off, staring at a pair of bright red boxer shorts, the source of the flapping sound. Flying high above us on the flagpole at the entrance of the park, two well-placed spotlights lit them up. Thanks to the careful planning of the landscaping architects who originally designed the lighted flagpole, a small indistinct atom symbol could be seen in the dim light. The faintest bit of pink crept up his neck and reached his cheeks. He whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at me.

"You little minx! You set me up!" he growled, pushing the chains of the swing out of his way and advancing on me. "Oh, I am so going to get you back for this Vortex."

"Not if you can't catch me!" I shouted, backtracking quickly.

Without delay I spun on my heels and made a mad dash for the play structure behind me. He seemed torn for a moment between retrieving his purloined underpants and chasing after me, but in the end, as I blew a playful raspberry at him from atop the slide, hunting me down took priority. He charged after me at an unsettling speed. I let loose a startled shriek and waited for him to get half way up the stairs before slipping neatly down the slide. I jumped around to face him as he bounded the rest of the way up the stairs. He stopped at the top of the slide. Sticking my thumb to the tip of my nose, I waggled my fingers at him. He grinned and threw himself down the slide after me. I yelped and booked it, running pell-mell to the wooded area on the other side of the playground. Jimmy followed me and I dashed in and out of the trees, trying to sneak away from him. The thick brush quickly hid me better than I could have imagined.

"Come out! Come out where ever you are," Jimmy called in what I suppose was meant to be a menacing voice.

I kept running. A ways into the forest, I pressed myself against a tree to catch my breath for a moment. Panting heavily, I listened for any sounds in the surrounding area. A few yards to my right and slightly behind me, I heard a rustling and branches snapping. I smiled and readied myself.

"Boo!" I shouted, jumping out from my hiding spot, but it wasn't Jimmy that made the sound.

The squirrel, which most likely was out for one last nighttime caper, gave a small chitter and dashed up a nearby tree. I laughed and began backing up. My back hit something solid behind me. A hand clapped atop of my mouth while another snaked across my waist. I let loose a muffled scream and jabbed the person who restrained me as hard as I could in the ribs with my elbow. I heard a familiar cry as the arms released me. There was a thump and I whirled around. Lying in a breathless heap in a pile of decomposing leaves and twigs from the nearby tree, Jimmy clutched his stomach.

"Oh God! Jimmy," I exclaimed, kneeling at his side and brushing his hair back from his forehead. "I'm so sorry! I thought… I thought…"

"S'ok Cin," he winced still holding his abdomen. His limpid blue eyes shown with pain. "It's not your fault. I should have known better than to sneak up on you."

"Oh Jimmy," I murmured, sympathetically. I leaned down further to kiss him softly on the forehead. "There all better."

He smiled at me and shook his head. Rising to my feet, I offered him my hand. I pulled up my poor battered boyfriend, and absently picked little bits of debris from the forest floor off his shoulder and dusted the leaves out of his hair for him.

"Let me see," I urged.

I lifted his shirt and could see my handiwork on his abs. A bright red mark marred his stomach. I could see the bruise forming already. I clucked my tongue at myself.

"I'm sorry Jimmy," I whispered as he pulled his shirt back down.

Jimmy shook his head and swung his arm around me. He leaned heavily on my shoulders, letting me bear some of his weight. He murmured something that vaguely resembled the words "domestic abuse" but when I raised an eyebrow at him, Jimmy just shook his head again.

"Don't worry about it. I deserved it for trying to surprise you like that. It was probably the only way I could have caught up to you anyway."

I shot him a coy smile and demurely said, "It was bad enough when I beat you in gym class, but you know it's a sad day when you get outrun by a pregnant lady, Neutron," I nudged him softly with my elbow in his side.

"Maybe I let you outrun me, Vortex. You ever think of that?"

"Suuuuuuure," I snorted at him skeptically.

We headed back to the playground and climbed up the play structure. He sat across from me, his long jean-clad legs reaching across the platform, reminding me how short I was compared to him. It was ironic that, though I hazed him about being short even when his height surpassed my own in high school, he never mentioned our height difference now. Maybe he liked my shorter stature. I smiled briefly as I looked at Jimmy, but the smile soon faded as I lost myself in thought.

"So'd you really mean what you were saying earlier?" he asked me some time later. "About our relationship? You've brought it up twice tonight, so it must be weighing pretty heavily on your mind."

"No. Well not exactly. It's just this whole time we've been focused on the baby and Eustace and our friend's wedding and everything else. We haven't really had time to just be us. I love you Jimmy. I always have, even when I was a jerk to you and tried my best to hide my feelings from you. I'm just worried that down the line, in a couple years, you're…" I hesitated for a second and looked down at my hands, "I mean we're going to regret doing things this way."

"That's not gonna happen, Cindy. I've loved you since before I knew what real love was and I know what we're doing is right. I can feel it in my molecular make-up."

I squinted one eye at him. He scooted over to my side and wrapped one arm around my shoulder. I leaned on his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

"How about this, after Sheen and Libby's wedding in August we go on an extended vacation, just the two of us? We'll be back before you're due. We have a whole month to work on the concept of 'us.' Though honestly, Cin, I think we're just fine the way we are," he said, rubbing my arm.

"Harumph," I muttered.

Placing one hand on either side of my face, he looked me square in the eye, "I love you Cynthia Aurora Vortex. Don't you ever forget that, and no Betty Quinlin or April the Gorlock or evil villains or plots to destroy the world or… or... or _science experiment_ will ever change that. I've never wanted anyone more than the maddeningly beautiful and contrary woman staring back at me right now and I never will."

Even though Jimmy and I already discussed this several times over, this was the first time he ever put it as succinctly as that. It melted my heart. Tears welled up in my eyes and spilled over. He wiped them from my face with the pads of his thumbs and gently pressed his lips to my forehead.

_'Mood swings,' _I scoffed at myself as Jimmy's sentiment from earlier in the day made it's way into my head. Inwardly laughing at my wayward emotions, I leaned once again into his chest. Only Jimmy, and apparently his offspring, could boast of having the ability to strip me of the tight reign over my emotions I usually prided myself on.

"This is why I love you," I whispered, collecting myself.

"Why?" he insolently interrupted. "Cause I'm devilishly handsome, charming, and a certified genius to boot?"

"No silly," I grinned at him. "Cause you say all the right things at all the right times."

"You don't think I'm handsome," he pouted, batting his puppy dog eyes at me. I bit back set of scathingly remarks at his blatant attempt to fish for a compliment.

Seductively sliding a hand up around his neck to pull his head down for another kiss, I purred, "Actually I think you're really _nice_."

While I initiated the kiss, it was Jimmy's words that gave it its timbre. Quite different from our first kiss, this one was a sweet kiss, filled with tenderness and such honest sincerity it killed any lingering doubts that may have been running through my mind. When we broke apart, I snuggled closer to him, trying to eliminate every inch of space between us.

"And of course I think you're handsome," I whispered, trembling from the release of emotions that his words and the resulting kiss had caused.

He must have felt me shiver and assumed it was the caused by the nighttime chill that had just set in, because he hoisted me to my feet, saying, "I'm cold and you probably are too, even if you're too stubborn to admit it. Let's get you home."

He shucked off his jacket and placed it around my shoulders and we walked hand in hand out of the park. Neither of us was aware that lurking in the bushes a few feet from where we had been, a pair of sinister green eyes were staring at us with murderous intent, watching us walk home in the dark.


	28. A Dish Best Served Cold

Disclaimer: Another day passes, another day I don't own Jimmy Neutron… But fortunately for me I do own some of his awesome inventions…. Like one of the ones in this upcoming chapter!

A.N. So I'm just going to stop apologizing for writing long chapters since you all like them so much, but I am going to apologize for taking forever with this chapter. It should be worth the wait. Enjoy!

* * *

Cindy's POV

He should have known better than to make the two smartest people in town angry. He should have known now that Jimmy and I were together, anything he did further to make one of us mad would just antagonize the other. He should have known we would get even some way. He knew the two of us; had known the two of us for how long now? He should have known Jimmy would never let him get away with what he had done; that I would have sought out the perfect way to make him pay. Our newfound symbiotic nature wouldn't allow for anything different. Pull on the tiger's tail, and he would find himself face to face with the claws and teeth.

The phrase "head for the hills" had never applied more in this case. Knowing what an unstoppable force the two of us were, like Ultra Lord and Jet Fusion, both with their own respective abilities, gadgets, and talents, he should have skipped town, defected to Canada, _something_. He should have run screaming for his mommy, but then again when had Sheen Estevez done anything he should have done?

Jimmy and I had been carefully laying out the framework for a great prank, and how Sheen never guessed that something was afoot just gave homage to the raging cluelessness of our childhood playmate. Finally, after months of prepping, going over my lines, the time had come to avenge my sullied name and have a few more laughs at Sheen's expense. It was now Sheen's time to pay the piper.

Libby and I were waiting patiently for Jimmy to pick us up in the limo he rented especially for the night. Really Libby was waiting patiently. I, on the other hand, fidgeted with my outfit, straightening nonexistent wrinkles and picking off imaginary fuzz from the shimmery fabric of my top.

"Girl would you calm down? Jimmy said seven. It's only quarter 'til," Libby scolded me. "You're gonna pick that shirt to death, which is a real shame, cause that halter is slammin'. Where'd you get it anyway? I don't remember seein' it before."

"Oh, Jimmy made it," I commented offhandedly. Libby gave me a severely weird-ed out look, so I explained further…

_

* * *

A Few Days Previous_

"_I call it the Neutronic Embryonic Sound Muffler, or NESM for short," Jimmy held up a black swath of fabric that resembled a halter-top that I once owned._

"_NESM??? Wha-What?!" my confused mien urged him to clarify his newest invention._

"_Libby's gift reminded me a few weeks ago that embryonic fluid is a good conductor of sound and that sounds any higher than 70 decibels could possibly be over stimulating or even harmful for the baby. The music at the club is going to be much louder. I didn't want anything to happen to Baby N, so I made this."_

"_What does it do?" I felt one eyebrow rise skeptically._

"_Basically any noise over 69 decibels is filtered out through a compacted system of dampeners, discordant melodies as well. It took me a couple days to figure out how to convert the acoustical absorption qualities from the Acoustivac and turn them into a wearable form."_

"_You mean the same Acoustivac you used to suck up the song that took Libby, Britney, and me a week to write?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips._

"_Yeah that one," he gave me a shifty look and chuckled. "Anyway I tested it on myself this time. I'm not leaving anything up to chance."_

"_Ok, but you're sure it'll work, you know without blowing up or anything?" I queried, still slightly trepidatious. _

"_Cin, this model's been ready for over two weeks. If it wasn't working at one hundred percent efficiency there would be no way that I would let it near you or the baby."_

"_So how much sleep did you lose over this one?" I sighed softly._

_I must have caught him off guard, because he answered me candidly saying, "Nothing more than I would have over the…" before he stopped and blushed._

"_Thought so," I scowled at him. "Jimmy, I swear sometimes you're going to irritate me to death. You need to sleep. You know very well that I am perfectly fine at Libby's each night. I thought you told Carl that you found a way to disprove your nightmares using… What was it again?"_

"_Non-Euclidean geometry," he supplied lamely, shaking his head. "But that was eons ago, and these dreams are far more realistic than any others that I've ever had," he whined. "The only time I haven't been able to recall my dreams was that one time I was with you." _

_I waved a hand in his face to stop him and rhetorically asked, "I'm just going to have to sleep with you for the rest of our lives, aren't I?"_

_Though my sarcasm was apparent, his face instantly brightened. His eyebrows shot to his hairline and his eyes danced with a wicked gleam. I playfully slapped his chest and cut him off before he could make a comment. _

"_Oh you know what I mean, you nerd!"_

"_Maybe I do, and maybe I don't," he chuckled and wrapped his arms around my back. I threw him a half smile that broke into a full grin as Jimmy leaned down to kiss me on my neck._

"_How'd you make this anyway?" I asked quickly, trying to change the subject before it led to more concupiscent topics or activities._

"_I had Libby send me a couple patterns for a shirt, as well as your measurements from the tailor, and I picked out one that I thought would look the best,"_

"_And you sewed it yourself?" I asked in mocking astonishment, placing my hand delicately against my heart. "Jimmy Neutron, boy seamstress. I never imagined." I snorted as he shook his head vehemently._

"_No, that would be Vox. All I did was input your proportions, and the blueprints. I kind of borrowed the concept from your Sweatsock Transmogrifier from that science fair you got me kicked out of… 'Ban This Brain and Ease Our Pain' were your words I believe."_

_My hands shoved myself from his embrace. My eyes narrowed into slits and I made a scathing noise at the back of my throat._

"_Wait you're telling me that you stole my idea and used it for your own nefarious purposes." _

"_When you put it that way…"_

"_Oh I will put it that way!" I shouted, jabbing my finger accusingly into his torso. "You stole my idea!"_

"_I would hardly call making something charitable and altruistic for my child and girlfriend nefarious. Cin, think of it as a compliment. You invented something truly remarkable. It was an imposing design that you created, not me. It was formidable enough to backwards engineer the blasted thing after you chipped off a piece of the internal circuit breaker when you threw it in the…"_

"_You went through my garbage!" I shrieked incensed._

"_You threw it away… It was out on the curb… One man's trash…" came his self-justifying response._

"_I only threw it out cause it didn't win."_

"_You came close," he whispered as though to soothe me._

"_Yeah, 'til your stupid invention nearly killed those people. It was my quick thinking that saved them, and did anybody thank me? Give me an award for rescuing them? Noooooo. Instead I remember a certain smug smart mouthed genius taunting me about the fact that they only bestow those accolades to the same genius who nearly destroys the town every other week."_

_Knowing that this was sacred ground being tread on Jimmy chose to take the higher road. Instead of rising to my prepubescent goading, he held up his hands in surrender and apologized feebly._

"_I'm sorry?"_

_I placed my head in my hands and shook it back and forth slowly, endeavoring to lower my blood pressure and calm myself. I took a few deep breaths trying to center myself before scrutinizing his face again._

"_Well," I sighed, still irked, but only minutely so, "It's not like you patented it and sold it en masse…" I trailed off taking in his visage. "You didn't!"_

_Guilt had practically taken up billboard space on his face, complete with the neon lighting. Pupils dilated in fear, he retreated across the room to stand behind the couch, thinking that the furnishing would supply him with an adequate amount of room for a head start incase I decided that pulverizing him was the best possible solution for releasing my outrage. _

"_N-n-n-n-now Cin…" he stammered._

"_Don't you 'now Cindy' me," I rounded on him. "You patented my invention! That was my invention. __**Mine**__! You already have so many. It's not fair. I have one good idea and you steal it."_

_Angry tears welled up in my eyes and spilled over. Jimmy, stunned for a moment at my capriciousness, quickly closed the gap between us and pulled me into tight yet comforting hug as I sobbed into his chest._

"_I know," he said, quietly stroking my hair, "I know. We switched bodies remember? All those years of an overbearing mother who pushed you to unattainable perfection in conjunction with direct competition with an arrogant genius forcing you to be second best. Not to mention the variations in the chemical substances being secreted by your endocrine gland due to your gestational status. You don't have to explain, sweetheart; I know, and I'm sorry. It's not copyrighted under my name anyway. I submitted the application using your name. I was going to tell you, I swear. I just didn't know how to do it without making you mad."_

"_Oh," I sniffled. "You could have just told me."_

"_I meant to, I just never found the right moment,"_

"_How long ago did you patent it?"_

"_After your mom kicked you out. The day after you told me about the baby. I couldn't have you two living like paupers, and I knew you wouldn't readily accept charity, no matter how honorable my intentions. I figured if you made the money from something you invented then you'd be more apt to take it. You've made a pretty penny with too. Significantly more than __**my**__ last invention, I might point out. Maybe you should be the inventor of the family then."_

"_Only if you can be the pregnant emotional wreck," I gave a watery chuckle._

* * *

"So wait," Libby shook an accusing finger at me when I finished. "You're tellin' me that Jimmy sold somethin' you invented and now you're loaded? Sheen and I betta be gettin' somethin' expensive for our wedding."

"Jimmy and I already got you something awesome, and I fully intend to pay you back for all the clothes you bought me."

"You shoulda told me sooner girl."

"Sorry I've been preoccupied with things lately," I apologized, peering out through the curtains for the tenth time.

"You mean you've been too busy makin' out with Jimmy," she smirked, causing me to blush furiously.

"Hey look the boys are here!" I called, quickly running to the door to answer it.

"How convenient," Libby muttered.

I threw open the door to see Jimmy shoving Sheen, who wore a bright purple blindfold over his eyes, up the sidewalk. A very bewildered Carl shuffled behind them. They stopped only a few feet outside the door and I stifled a giggle. Carl looked at me, uncertainty written across his face. I held a finger to my lips, hoping that he would catch the drift and keep quiet, but poor Carl still hadn't learned to keep his mouth shut.

"Ji-Ji-Jimmy" Carl stuttered, finally voicing his confusion. "I thought we were going out tonight."

"We are," Jimmy responded casually, nudging Sheen a few feet further.

"Then why are we…"

"Carl! Shut it! It's a surprise."

"Alright! It's been my life long dream to be kidnapped! Now what are we doing? Wait I know! We're at the tattoo parlor! I wanna get 'Libbylicious' across my arm."

"Dream on, lover-boy. That ain't gonna happen," Libby snapped.

"Libby?" he asked flabbergasted. He ripped off the blindfold to gape at the two of us. Melodramatically he clutched his hands to his chest and pretended to swoon at the sight, stumbling back into Jimmy, who shoved him playfully.

"Ay dios mio!" Sheen blurted out, elbowing Jimmy in the ribs, "Check out those mamacitias. I knew you said we were meeting up with some hot chicks later, but I didn't realize you meant these two, cause I ain't ever seen Libby, or Cindy for that matter, look so spicy. Are they coming too?"

"Of course we're coming out with you, you big dunce," I laughed, blushing at his compliment.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go! The wolf is back on the prowl! Aooow!!!" Sheen howled.

Jimmy turned to me and gave me a secret look that I knew meant, "Remind me again why he's one of my best friends?" I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed my jacket and their wedding present. The five of us walked out of the apartment. After we climbed into the limousine, Jimmy threw his arm around my shoulders gently.

"I forgot to say how beautiful you really are," Jimmy gazed down at me. Sincerity rang throughout his voice.

"I'm just wearing my black slacks and that NESM thing." I rolled my eyes.

"Vortex, you make sweats look sexy," he replied, making me blush.

"You're not so bad looking yourself, Neutron," I replied, winking at him. "Though your choice in wardrobe…"

"Hey!" he cried indignantly, "I dressed up tonight!"

Really he had, but I couldn't resist giving him a hard time about it. He wore a button down shirt that I bought him as a belated birthday gift and a pair of nice jeans

"Oh and I especially love it when you haven't shaved in days and your hobo beard comes back, Crazy Louie," I added unable to resist.

I ran a finger over his cheek, pretending to feel thick stubble on his clean-shaven face. Grinning ear to ear, he batted my finger away.

"Stop that."

"Stop what? Asking you to open coconuts for me? Ooh! Coconut sounds good right about now. Do you think they'll have anything on the menu that has some, or do you think we'll have to special order it? You could always offer to be the one to open them, so they don't have to go out and buy any special equipment."

"Vortex," he growled playfully.

"Yes, Louie, I mean Jimmy?"

He tilted my chin towards him and looked me in the eye. "Stop it," he insisted again, and pressed a firm kiss against my lips.

"I love it when you end our arguments like that," I told him with a wicked grin when he finally broke the kiss.

"I know," he admitted, quickly lifting his eyebrows to emphasize his point, "That's why I do it."

* * *

Stepping out of the limo you could tell that it was going to be an interesting night, one of memories and laughter. Something about the way the air tasted, the electric current that flowed through the air (though that may have just been the normal tingles that I got when holding Jimmy's hand) the way the stars shown in the cloudless Texas sky, the vast and endless expanse of obsidian flecked with a myriad of shattered pieces of a broken mirror refracting the light of the distant stars just for our benefit, all seemed to foreshadow the adventures of the night.

Even though the club wasn't the swankiest place, it was crowded, but that was also typical. As the only club in the greater Retroville area that didn't serve alcohol, the youth practically flooded the doors on a Friday night. People were pressed into the sides of the walls, but mercifully Jimmy's reputation, and the roll of bills he slipped to the man at the door when he thought none of us were looking, got us a private secluded booth near the far back of the establishment. Really I had to roll my eyes at his audacity, and I stored it into my memory banks to give him a hard time about it when we got home that night.

Insisting that the guys stay at the table, Libby and I took their orders and then walked to the counter.

"Libbs, I forgot to tell you," I shouted above the din of the music. "If Sheen hits on any girls tonight, let me take care of it."

"What? Why?" she eyed me uneasily over her shoulder. "Is this part of your big…"

"It's for the benefit for all," I cut her off.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to enjoy this?"

I shared a smile with her as we placed our order. A few minutes later, laden down with our snacks, we returned to the table. We set it down in the center, both of us unable to remember who had requested what, save our own dinner.

"I beat myself at checkers once," Sheen told Carl and Jimmy, proudly pointing to his chest as though the honor was one of the best he had ever been bestowed.

Bewildered, Libby and I exchanged glances. What conversation had we missed in the ten minutes time it took us to get the food and drinks that led up to this comment? I looked to Jimmy for an answer, but he shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

"That's cause you let yourself win," Jimmy commented, and moved his arm to make room for me in the seat next to him.

"Yeah well I was feeling sorry for him," admitted Sheen with a sheepish expression on his face.

"Ooooookay…" I said, changing the subject. "Let's eat."

I reached for my plate of food, slapping Carl's hand away from my chili-cheese fries in the process.

"Are you sure you should be eating that?" Jimmy interrupted, indicating the French fry covered in layers of gooey cheese and chili that I had just picked up.

"Yes," I snapped lightly and nodded my head at him. "You read the studies too. The latest one I read says that you should give into your cravings and this is exactly what the doctor ordered." I popped the fry into my mouth and smirked at him.

"Yeah! Jeeze Jimmy, you should know better than that!" Sheen exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air. "She's pregnant, not fat!"

"Sheen!" Carl whispered, seeing the looks on both Libby's face and mine.

"I know what article you're quoting and I can name five off the top of my head that disprove that preposterous theory. I've read at least twelve that state that pregnancy cravings are linked to the emotional wellbeing of the mother," Jimmy calmly replied, effectively diverting my attention away from Sheen's comment. He pulled the plate of fries out of arm's reach.

"Whatever!" I crossed my arms across my chest. "I just want my fries."

I felt my face fall and I was sure that I must have looked like a spoiled child that hadn't gotten her way as I pouted over my pilfered snack.

"You sure you just don't need a hug?" he asked with a knowing expression.

Placing one finger on my jawbone, just underneath my ear, I pretended to think for a moment and then responded, "I'll take one of those, but only if I can get a kiss too."

"You're greedy tonight," Jimmy could barely contain his smirk.

"Oh I am," I murmured, scooting my body closer to his.

"Well if you insist."

He carefully wrapped his arms around me and planted a passionate kiss on my lips. Pretending to reach around his back to pull him closer, I leaned into his body more, and quickly snatched the plate back from where he had placed it. Smugly smiling at my craftiness, I pulled away and delicately placed another fry into my mouth.

"You…" Jimmy griped, flabbergasted at my shamelessness.

I kissed him again on the cheek and whispered, "Don't ever stand between a Vortex and what she wants. You of all people should know by now, I play dirty."

"I don't know which I liked better," Sheen nudged Carl, "Jimmy and Cindy going at it, or them _going_ at it."

"Uhh…" Carl muttered, knowing if he said anything he'd probably get beaten up.

"Speaking of going at it. Carlito, when are you going to find yourself a woman?" Sheen exclaimed, changing the subject. "I mean you've been single like forever."

"Nuh uh." Carl protested, blushing, "I dated Elkie for a while."

"For like two weeks!"

"Yeah but they were the best two weeks of my life."

"Dude that was like five years ago! There are plenty of other chica's in the sea. You're gonna have to get over her sooner or later!"

"I am over her!" Carl crossed his arms across his chest defensively.

"Yeah that's why you cried when she said she couldn't come to the wedding with you. Seriously man we need to find you someone to take to the wedding!"

"I'll be fine Sheen. I'll just hang out with Jimmy and Cindy,"

"Uh…" Jimmy muttered, but Sheen quickly interrupted him.

"Those two are not going to want to baby-sit you the whole time, Carl! I mean, look over there at those two," Sheen pointed to a couple of striking girls across the dance floor. "I bet you could get them with one hand tied behind your back."

"I dunno…"

"You're going to have to put a rush order on that, Sheen. The wedding's in…" Jimmy turned his wrist to consult his watch. "Six days, 17 hours, and 23 minutes."

I rolled my eyes and nudged Jimmy softly with my elbow. "Leave it to you to be exact about _everything_"

"Hey, I can't help it if I like to be precise," he shrugged his shoulders with a crooked grin.

"Alright! Let's get going!" Sheen called, ignoring the exchange between Jimmy and me.

"Sheen… I don't… I'm not…" Carl stuttered.

Sheen thought for a moment and then snapped his fingers, "I got it! I'll be your wingman."

"I'm not really comfortable with…"

Still Sheen tuned out Carl's protests, "I'll go talk you up to those chicas and then you can come over and buy them a couple of drinks."

"Sheen. No," but Carl's objections fell on deaf ears as Sheen stood and walked over to the dance floor.

"They'll be putty in your hands when I get done with them, Carlito," he called over his shoulder as he left.

Both Carl and Libby made motions to get up to stop him, but I quickly shook my head.

With Sheen now out of earshot, I leaned over to the two of them to whisper, "Just wait."

The four of us watched as Sheen smoothly approached the pair of young women he pointed out earlier. He tapped one on her bare shoulder and almost as one the two, both brunettes, turned to face him. From our position we could see they were dressed alike.

"Twins," Libby muttered under her breath and buried her face in her hands. "My worst nightmare."

She peeked an eye through her hands. I could tell that she was on the verge of panicking as the two carefully wound themselves, like cats, around Sheen's muscular body.

"Cindy," she muttered my name in almost a growl. "You had better have something spectacular planned after this."

Libby placed both hands onto the table as if to either brace herself so she could jump up before things went too far, or to restrain herself, I couldn't tell which. I reached across the table and pried one hand from its death grip.

"Not long now," I murmured, and I was right.

Jimmy flicked a finger at me; giving me the silent signal, like we rehearsed, but I didn't need it. Libby, I could tell, had reached her boiling point, watching the twins caress and fondle her irresponsibly flirtatious husband-to-be, and if I didn't do something quickly, not only would all of our scheming be for naught, but there might not be a wedding after all. I jumped to me feet, as fast as any 8-months pregnant woman could and stalked over to Sheen with an angry scowl on my face.

"Oh Sheen, you're so nice," one of them cooed as she ran a finger down the side of his neck to his chest.

"Yeah Sheen, it's so kind of you to do this for your friend," the other one added.

I marched up to him and grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around domineeringly. One of the girls, the one with honey blond highlights that I hadn't been able to see from our table, played with his earlobe, or had been until he wheeled around to face me. For a tenth of a second his face held the look of a puppy who was being petted and loved on, but that instantly disappeared when he took in my frightening face.

"Sheen Juarerra Estevez!" I shouted in a picture of perfect irascibility.

I watched him gulp and steel himself for whatever browbeating he thought was coming next.

"You tell me that you're just going to 'step out for milk' and I find you here schmoozing here with these hussies. Meanwhile, I had to drop our other two kids off at my sisters!"

I placed my hands on my hips, angling them differently than I normally would to emphasis my still small, but obviously pregnant belly. The flashing lights of the club sparkled and danced on the fabric of the shirt. It played a multicolor horror show upon the black material and I secretly applauded Jimmy for coming up with something so brilliant, even if he did steal parts of it from me.

'_I will definitely reward him for that,'_ I thought, still keeping on my mask of rage.

"What do you have to say for yourself?!" I demanded.

"I-I-I-I," he stammered, completely caught off guard.

"Well?" I asked, beginning to shake with what appeared to be anger, but in reality was pent up mirth.

"Yes Sheen," the highlighted one began…

"Tell us," her sister finished.

"I-I-I-I."

"I-I-I-I," I stuttered, mocking him. "I can't believe you would do this to me, again! After all I've done for you! Bailing you out of jail, paying off your bookie, bearing your two, now three children, ironing your _underwear_ because that's the way you wanted it."

By this time tears had begun to stream down my face, smearing the mascara I bought because I knew it wasn't waterproof. I was making a spectacle of myself, and I knew it, but if it ended Sheen's comments and possibly put a halt to his womanizing ways, it was well worth it.

"Three children?" the darker of the two turned to face him and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Bailed out of jail?" the other mirrored her stance.

"Ironing your _underwear_?" they asked in unison and one following the other, the two women slapped him across the face. One hand to each cheek, Sheen's face had perfectly matching handprints on either side of his face.

Spinning on my heel, I attempted to stalk back to the table.

"Cindy, dear," Sheen growled. Obviously the slaps had knocked his speech abilities back into gear. "May I have a word with you?"

He placed two hands on my shoulders, but I quickly shrugged him off. He moved to grab me again, but the twins, taking pity on the "unfortunate pregnant Cindy" shoved him back away from me.

"Nuh uh!" one said.

"Don't you think you've done enough to this poor girl?"

Internally I smiled and laughed, the plan going better than Jimmy or I ever thought possible. The stars must have aligned to have things go so perfectly. It was almost like someone had preordained it.

"She's not my… I'm not the baby's…" he scrambled to find some sort of defense that wouldn't earn him another blow.

"No! I don't think so!" one of the girls waved a finger at him and picked up her drink with her other hand. She launched the liquid at him. It splashed across the countertop as it ricocheted off his face. The other scantily dressed girl took her beverage as well and Sheen watched in disbelief as she poured it over his head, drawing out the process at a painstakingly slow speed. The combined purple and orange fizzy soda stained rivulets down the white fabric.

"Fine!" he finally relented and stormed off towards the bathroom to clean up his clothes. "We'll deal wit this later," he growled as he passed me.

"Will you be alright, honey?" one of them asked me.

I nodded quickly, eager to get back to my friends, and slipped into the crowd. I took a longer route to the table so that the girls, who had unknowingly played the best part in our revenge plot, wouldn't notice that I stayed in the club. When I made it back to the table, I paused. Carl looked, for lack of a better word, traumatized. His eyes were wide in shock and his mouth gaped open and closed like a fish breathing underwater. No words came from his speechless mouth. Tears of exhilaration rolled down Libby's cheeks, unchecked, and her shoulders bounced up and down, shaking with uncontainable giggles. Jimmy clutched his stomach and bent over the table, laughing. His forehead was so close to the table that as he laughed it banged lightly into it several times.

"I… I… Love you!" Libby giggled.

"That. Was. Masterful." Jimmy sat up and pulled me back into the booth next to him. "You were brilliant!"

"Thank you, thank you," I made an awkward bowing motion due to the baby and the table blocking my way.

"Yeah, thanks a lot!" Sheen muttered returning to the table at last.

His shirt was still damp. The stains blurred together in several places, but there would be no hope for saving the garment.

"What was that about?!" he demanded, throwing himself down next to Libby, who still quivered.

I smiled at him sweetly and answered in a honeyed tone, "Maybe next time you'll think twice about making fun of our sex life."

"Or hitting on other girls, even if it's for someone else," Jimmy added.

"You! You knew about this!" Sheen rounded on him.

"Of course I did. Who do you think came up with it in the first place?"

Sheen looked disparagingly across the table and began to scold him, "Jimmy! For shame! Bro's before…"

"Sheen, don't you dare finish that sentence," Libby nudged him in the ribs.

"You should consider yourself lucky," Carl nodded his head, finally regaining his speech. "Jimmy could have just turned her loose and let her pound you into guacamole."

"Hey! I never pounded anyone into guacamole!" I interjected.

"No, you just threatened to do it," Jimmy leaned close and kissed me lightly on the forehead.

"Hey Cin," Libby shoved Sheen from the booth and stood up. "Come with me to fix my makeup. Your mascara's runnin' and mine's probably doin' the same."

I nodded, pressed a kiss on to Jimmy's cheek, and followed her, saying, "Be back in a minute."

_

* * *

Approximately 10 minutes later_

"Cindy?!" Jimmy's voice called from my wrist. I looked down at the charm bracelet that had yet to leave my wrist since he gave it to me. It was the first time he had actually used it other than to let me know he arrived safely at his house each night, and I was startled by the raw panic in his voice. "Cindy! Damn it woman! Where the hell are you?!"

"I'm in the bathroom, Jimmy. Calm down. I've been gone for like five minutes."

"I will not calm down!" his voice echoed through the room as he burst through the door.

A few of the women in the bathroom shrieked as he barged his way through the crowd to get to me. He latched onto my arm and began dragging me from the spot where I had been attempting to fix my makeup. His nails dug into my skin.

"Ow," I winced and tried to pull myself from his grasp. "You're hurting me."

"Sorry," he apologized curtly, and adjusted his grip, sliding his hands up my arms and steering me towards the exit on the other side of the club.

"Jimmy what's going on?"

"We're leaving."

"What!? Why?" I spun around to face him and planted my feet firmly. I wasn't going to leave without a fight, or at least a valid reason. "We just got started and they haven't even….

"Strych is back," he cut me off tersely.

I felt all the blood drain out of my face. My knees buckled and Jimmy barely caught me in time as I swooned. His words followed me into oblivion, repeating over and over again as I slipped into unconsciousness.

_**Strych is back... Strych is back... **__**Strych is back…**_


	29. Razing the Children

Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron *insert random evil laughter here*.

A.N. I'm not happy with this chapter at all, but Strych's return needed some explanation before the upcoming chapters. Frankly I think this chapter is the worst since the beginning of the story, but I'm the author, what do I know?

* * *

Jimmy's POV

When Cindy came to, I was shaking her, whispering her name. Somehow I managed to carry her back to the limo and Cindy's head was in my lap as we drove back to my house. Twenty minutes already passed since she fainted in the club and I considered having the driver take us to the hospital. She hadn't responded to my coaxing thus far and I was growing more desperate as the seconds continued to tick by.

"Cin, come on sweetheart. Wake up," I pleaded.

Her eyelids fluttered open. A smile toyed at her lips, but it quickly evaporated.

"There's my girl," I continued to whisper. "You had me worried there for a minute, Vortex."

She pulled herself into a sitting position and looked at me. I knew my face held an odd mixture of panic and relief. Panic because I wanted her safely locked in the lab, and relief that she was conscious again.

"Strych…" she rasped and I nodded. "How? Where?"

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. "My mom called while you were in the bathroom. He… he showed up at your mother's house. He trashed the place, searching for you, and then lit it on fire."

Her eyes grew wide and I could tell she was growing dizzy again. Cindy swayed slightly and I leaned forward to brace her shoulders with my hands.

"Stay with me, Cindy," I locked her eyes with mine, and held her there for a moment. Hysteria forced her breath to come in shallow gasps.

"Mom," she managed to croak out.

"She's fine. She's fine," I reassured her. "She's shaken up, but ok. She's with my parents now."

I kept murmuring to her as we traveled onward, drawing closer to the house. I hoped the low tones would be enough to keep Cindy calm, for her sake and the baby's. The filters of the air conditioning unit in the limousine couldn't purify the amount of smoke still lingering in the air as we grew nearer to our neighborhood. I finally broke my eye contact with Cindy to glance through the window over her shoulder at her mother's house. A single wisp of smoke trailed up into the cloudless night.

"Don't look," I barked quickly to save her from the horrific sight, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the view.

All that was left of the home was a smoldering pile of ashes. The firefighters arrived too late to save the house, and had already left by the time we pulled up. The joists of the house had given way, as though someone meticulously ignited the fire with the intentions of razing it to the ground. Ashes fell like snow as a sudden gust of turbulent wind ripped through the now empty lot, and still Cindy remained motionless beside me, gaping at the rubble. An unfathomable emotion shown in her eyes. They brimmed with tears, but she reined them in. I climbed out of the vehicle as soon as it came to a complete stop, and drew Cindy out behind me. The driver, having already been paid in advance, sped away the second the passenger door closed as though he were pursued by the devil himself. We turned as one to face the obliterated domicile.

"Go on into my house," I told her. I didn't know why, but I felt the need to get closer. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I steered Cindy towards the door and added, "I'll be there in a minute. You go check on your mom."

I didn't wait for a reply. A purposeful stride, one so foreign to me that it seemed to have sprung from the depths of hell and tragedy, carried me closer to the wreckage until the soles of my shoes radiated with the heat of the coals underneath. A small doll, plastic warped from the intense heat, lay where Cindy's room would have been had the blaze not collapsed the building. A single joist with ragged edges, near the back of where the structure once stood, pointed accusingly at the heavens. Everywhere among the debris, scraps of reminders of Cindy's childhood floated in the smoking remnants. The smell of sulfur permeated the fabric of my clothes, clinging with a feeling of an almost unending hopelessness. Some how I got the impression that not even a thousand washes with an industrial strength detergent would be able to rid the cloth of this newest heartache. The thought that briefly flitted through my mind that night on the rooftop came back, as if carried by the stench of flames and ruins. How many of us would be touched by this tragedy before it ended?

"Jimmy?" a soft voice called through the darkness of my musings.

I turned to see Cindy standing in the doorway, waiting for me. Shoving my hands into my pockets, I sighed and walked back across the street. She hadn't moved from where I left her, except to open the door. Moths darted in and out of the doorway, basking in the glow emanating from porch light. Like fluttering flakes of ash, they hovered around Cindy's head. She cringed as one flew too close to her face.

"Come on," I murmured, throwing an arm around her shoulder.

She leaned into my frame and together we trudged bravely into the foyer. The fetor of charred youthful fantasies stalked us into the house and snaked around a corner.

"Mom? Dad?" I called into the next room. "Where are you guys?"

"Dinning room, Jimmy," my dad replied.

The walls muffled his voice, but his timbre sounded strangled even through the plaster and sheetrock. I felt rather than heard Cindy sigh. Despite my reassurances on the ride over, when I glanced down she met my eyes with a fatalistic look. Nodding once to indicate that we needed to proceed, she prodded me in the side and we walked to the room.

Our parents sat around the table almost as though they were in a board meeting. Dad sat at the head of the table while Mom perched on the edge of a chair closer to the middle, and to Cindy's mother. Mrs. Vortex had ensconced herself onto a chair as far away from my parents as physically possible. When the two of us entered both Mom and Dad stood and turned to face us. Mom had wrung her hands until bright red marks burned in the low lighting. She stifled a gasp and moved around the table to embrace us.

"Thank goodness. We were so worried," she breathed, holding a hand to her lips.

"We're fine, Mom. What's the status update here?"

They filled us in further, informing us that the police had no clue as to Strych's current whereabouts. Somehow I wasn't surprised.

All the while Cindy's mother remained oblivious to our presence. A thick line of soot trailed down her cheek. It was apparent that she had gone into the blaze to save something. In her arms she held Lexie, the cat Cindy's parents bought to try to replace Humphrey when he died seven years ago. She gazed down at the feline, stroking her fur repetitively in a transparent attempt to stave off the shock we all were feeling.

In an uncharacteristic gesture, Dad knelt down next to her chair and whispered, "Sasha, the kids are here."

When Mrs. Vortex looked up the shock morphed into a visage of loathing. It was painfully clear whom she held responsible for this catastrophe. She stood abruptly; setting Lexie down on the chair behind her, and with a trembling hand stabbed a finger at the two of us. She appeared like she was about to launch into an expletive filled condemnation, but my mom cut her off.

"Now Sasha," Mom put her hand on Mrs. Vortex's arm and tugged it down to her side. "We already explained it to you. This isn't the kids' fault."

"Like hell it isn't!" she shouted, wrenching her wrist from my mom's grasp. "If your _son,_" she spat the word like a bad piece of fruit from her mouth, "hadn't interfered with that Strych boy or my Cynthia…"

"Jimbo only did what was right," my dad interrupted.

"Right?!" she hissed. "You call this abomination right?"

She pointed to Cindy, who hadn't moved or spoken since we walked into the room.

"What would you have him do? Let him kill Jimmy? Kill Cindy? Do you think Strych would stop at our children in his quest for power?" my mom shrieked at her.

She lunged at Mrs. Vortex, but before she could make it to her all the way, Dad reached out an arm to stay her. It seemed too seasoned, almost as though there had been many other times, times I obviously hadn't seen, that he had been forced to restrain my mom.

"He doesn't want power, Mom; he wants revenge," I muttered even though I knew she wouldn't hear me during her outburst.

"He didn't mention anything like that when he questioned me," she sneered. She sounded so much like Cindy when she razzed me that I realized where she learned it.

"What?!" I yelped. "He spoke to you? What did he say?"

"Nothing of importance," she replied. She met my eyes and glared at me with such loathing that I was surprised my body didn't disintegrate under its intensity. "He cornered me while I was letting the cat in for the night. He tied me up and asked me a few questions. When he finished, he had his goon untie me," She rubbed her wrists where I could see red rope marks. "Then they tossed me out on the street. Out of my own house."

"What did he ask?" I asked her.

"I already told you; nothing of importance."

"Please Mrs. Vortex," I pleaded, "It _is_ important. What did he ask you?"

"He wanted to know where my daughter was."

"What did you tell him?" I asked, panicking at the thought of Sheen, Libby, and Carl returning to Libby's apartment in search of us and finding Strych instead. I hadn't stopped to explain things to them when we left, just given the guys a short story about having to talk to Cindy. My hasty words and our sudden departure from the club wouldn't have gone unnoticed. It was only a matter of time before the three of them came looking for us. A knot formed in the pit of my stomach. Cindy seemed to sense my alarm and gazed up at me, finally moving for the first time. She blinked rapidly, dispelling the tears that filled her eyes.

"What did you say!?" I demanded. My voice was rough.

"I told him the same thing I told that wretch," she jabbed a finger at Cindy, "When I kicked her out on her slutty lying face."

There was a collective sharp intake of breath at her comment as the four of us took in her hurtful words.

"Don't you dare talk to her like that!" shouted my mom, struggling in my dad's arms. Both hands interlocked, his limbs remained firmly locked around her waist, which was a good thing. She looked like she was ready to punch Cindy's mother in the face. I always figured that my temper sprung from the vast quantities of volatile chemicals I exposed myself to, and having to deal with years of Cindy's ridicule. Never had it crossed my mind that my sweet philanthropic mother would really be concealing an inner raging volcano of hostility.

I glanced over at Cindy to gauge her reaction. A cold steel-ish look glinted in her eyes. I knew that look. It resembled the one she used to give me before she jumped down my throat. When she shot me that look, I knew that I only had seconds before I met my inevitable verbal doom. It only made an occasional appearance in recent days during one of her severe mood swings and usually I deserved them. Now however I was taken aback to see that glare directed at her mother.

"Get out." Cindy growled through clenched teeth.

"What was that?" her mother hissed.

"You heard what I said."

"You dare speak to me? You insubordinate little brat."

"Get out now. I don't need you, or your lies, or your money, or your acceptance. You can take it all and shove it up your… No. You're not even worth it. Leave and never bother my family again," Cindy spat with vigor.

"Well I never," her mother held a hand to her heart, attempting to play the victim.

"Get! Out! Now!" she shrieked, and the terrifying power behind her words sent chills up my spine.

Without so much as a backward glance, Mrs. Vortex stalked out the room, still carrying herself as though she was someone who was going places; regardless of the fact she was "childless", single, and now without a home. I followed her with my eyes as her path took her across the street to an ash-covered car that rested next to the property, waiting for the keys to start the ignition.

Awestruck I turned back to the scene in the dining room. Tears flowed down my mothers face and she held her arms out to Cindy, offering a motherly hug, but Cindy shook her head.

"What did she say to you?" my dad asked, not noticing that Cindy had reached her breaking point.

"She said she had no daughter," she answered without a trace of life in her voice and as she ducked her head, a single tear, one that she had been trying to hold back, trickled down her cheek. With the successful release of the first tear, the rest, who had also been biding their time, clambered from her eyes in a torrent of saline and misery.

Instantly I wrapped her into my arms and held her as tightly as I could without hurting her.

"Shh… It'll be ok," I whispered. "It'll be ok. I promise. Nothing's going to happen to you or the baby. We'll be ok."

* * *

Cindy moved into the lab that night. She didn't put up an argument either. By the time Sheen and Carl made it back from Libby's apartment to collect her possessions, she had already cried herself dry and was curled up on the bed I brought down to the lab. None of us knew how long this arrangement would last and at this point in her pregnancy I wasn't about to let her sleep on an air mattress every night. While I disassembled my bed upstairs and brought it down, Cindy stayed with my mom, who tried to soothe her as best she could, but eventually Cindy waved her away.

Each night, as we curled up together, Cindy would cling to me like I would be stripped away from her too. I let her though. She already lost so much: her sense of security and invincibility, her home, and now her mother. Secretly I drew as much comfort from our embrace as she did from me. The nightmares left, driven back by her presence again, but I would have gladly traded an eternity of sleepless nights for her piece of mind and a chance to return all those things to her.

Though we were temporarily safe locked in the lab, another event, one that _required_ our attendance, loomed in the distance. Three days prior to the wedding and a full hour earlier than we originally discussed, Sheen and Libby arrived to escort Cindy to the tailor's for the girls' final dress fitting, and both seemed bent on talking me into letting them postpone the wedding further.

"Jimmy, are you sure?" Libby asked. "We can always push back the wedding until Strych is in jail."

"Of course I'm sure. You guys have waited long enough and there's no telling how long it will be before he reappears. Cindy needs some normalcy right now and she's been looking forward to the wedding for a long time."

"We don't mind. We understand; she's going through a lot," Sheen said placing his arm around Libby's shoulder. It struck me, seeing Sheen's sedate pose on the couch, how much he changed, how much we all changed during this calamity.

"I know," I sighed and ran a hand through my hair morosely. "She hasn't said much since that night. She seems so lost. Between Strych's return and her mother… I hear her crying at night when she thinks I'm asleep. I don't know how else to help her except give her something positive to focus on."

"But if it's going to cause the two of you undue stress, Jimmy, we'll postpone."

"You guys can't postpone. There's only three days until the wedding. The wedding isn't about me and Cindy. It's about you and Sheen.

"But…" Libby protested.

"No" came a firm voice from the alcove. "Jimmy's right."

"Well I never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth," Libby beamed at her friend.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, chica," Sheen grinned.

I turned to see Cindy fresh from her shower. A bright orange towel, the mutant color of orange juice and tie-dyed lemon, wrapped around her hair, she padded over to the living area of the lab. She smiled half-heartedly and nestled herself onto the couch next to me. She had resorted back to wearing her old grey sweatpants, her comfort pants she called them once, and one of my old science club t-shirts. Seeing the goose bumps ripple across her bare arms, I reached behind me to grab the pink and blue afghan Carl's mom knitted for the baby off the back of the couch. As I handed it to her, she sent me a look of silent thanks and buried herself further into the crevasse between the cushions.

"Don't get too excited there, Nerdtron," she told us when she finished settling. "I can guarantee that's the only time I'll ever willingly admit to it, but with Grey Star and Jet Fusion in attendance, the security at the wedding should be adequate for keeping us safe."

"But…" Libby tried to protest one last time.

"No! You go on with the wedding as planned and _nothing _will go wrong."


	30. Going To The Chapel

Disclaimer: I don't own it. The specifics on what it really is I won't get into.

A.N. I'm glad you guys liked the last chapter. I'm sorry it's taken so long for this chapter. I'm really sick of writing about happy people. I HATE HAPPINESS!!!!!!!! The next few chapters hopefully will come out better and sooner, I hope.

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* * *

Cindy's POV_

A year ago, if someone had told me that I would be dating Jimmy Neutron, they would most likely find themselves in the hospital with a fist sized knot on the side of their face. If someone told me I would be pregnant with his child, I would have found myself in jail for first degree murder. But, if someone told me that I would find my best friend beside herself, pacing back and forth in a gorgeous designer white gown in the middle of a Sunday school classroom, I probably would have laughed myself sick. Mrs. Folfax and Sheen's sister _mysteriously_ vanished the minute they finished dressing, saying that they were "going to go check on the caterers," leaving me alone with the apprehensive bride-to-be.

"It's here, ain't it? It's really here?" The tension in her voice clanged through the room, echoing off the mirror as she stopped to check her reflection for the fiftieth time that afternoon. She braced herself against the frame of the full-length mirror. Libby's face paled as she searched her likeness for the fatal blemish that would ruin her pristine complexion.

"Is what here, Libs?" I asked, attempting to adjust the hem of my dress so that it lay flat and not fall over in the three-inch, deep plum colored heels Libby insisted I wear at the same time.

"Am I really getting married today? To Sheen?" She refused to look at me, but continued to inspect her face for any flaws.

"No. You're marrying Carl," I stated blandly, finally giving into frustration and kicking the shoes off. Only ten minutes in those walking death traps Libby considered shoes and I could already feel the muscles in my legs cramping. "Of course you're marrying Sheen. You've only been talking about how much you love the kid for ages now."

Libby's face paled further. She turned to me with a desperate pleading in her eyes. "Cin, I can't do this. What if I trip? Mess up my vows?"

"Lib-bee! You're going to be fine. You've handled worse. At least it won't be anything like prom. It's just a walk down the aisle to Sheen. You tell him you love him, let him slip on that fabulous rock you said he bought but won't let me see; kiss and then spend the rest of your life happily ever after."

"Ok," she squeaked. Her fingers toyed with the veil for a moment before she blurted out, "What if Carl knocks over the cake?"

"Sheen and Jimmy are babysitting him today."

"But what if one of Jimmy's inventions…"

"He didn't bring any. I told I'd kick his butt if he even thought of trying to sneak one in. Plus I have Carl and Sheen keeping an eye on him."

"But what…"

"Don't even say what if Sheen does something. Jimmy and Carl said they'd watch him. Between the three of them, no one 's going to cause any harm."

She snickered at that, "Wow! Love must do crazy things to you, Cin, if you're gonna trust those boys together."

The two of us shared an abbreviated giggle before I added, "Everything's going to be perfect. I already told the three of them that if something went wrong, someone would die. Plus I heard from Jimmy that last night Sheen showed up and went groom-zilla on the workers who were setting up the sanctuary. He wants this day to run flawlessly for you, and he's trying his best."

"Thanks Cin," She sighed and I knew I still hadn't assuaged all her fears.

"You want me to check on them anyway?" I offered.

"Would ya?"

I quickly padded barefooted across the carpeting to the door. I scrunched my toes into the carpet, relishing the feeling of the extra padding underneath before turning back to add, "You know, you're supposed to be the mellow relaxed one, and I'm one who stresses over the little things."

She nodded in acquiescence. Cognizant of the fact that she would be capable of handling five minutes of desperately needed solitude, I strode out into the corridor to hunt down my prey. A short time later I found myself standing outside the door with a handwritten sign that read "No Girls Allowed, Men Only." I stifled a giggle and rapped on the door.

"Who dares disturb our domain?" Jimmy popped his head out the wooden door. Pretending to not notice my presence, he glanced up and down the hallway. "Blasted kids!"

I cleared my throat and tapped my foot impatiently. Jimmy sure picked interesting times to develop a sense of humor. Finally, he glanced his neck down and cracked a grin that hinted at trouble.

"Oh I didn't see you down there, short stuff."

He smirked and slipped, like an eel from its cave, out the door. The wooden barrier, painted with lilac and carnation patterns, clicked shut behind him as the latch sealed the portal to the "men's domain."

"What's goin… Quick!" Jimmy exclaimed in a hurried whisper. "Down this hall!"

He grabbed my arm and proceeded to drag me into an alcove.

"What's going on?" I breathed.

I could feel fear creeping up my spine, but I refused to let myself become a slave to it. I would master this feeling, no matter what the cost. Spinning on the balls of my feet I turned to look around. Stealthily I inched over to the corner and peer down the corridor. I tensed and quietly slipped into a crouching position, ready for any unseen attacker who may come our way. I felt my eyes narrow into slits as I attempted to see past their normal 20/20 vision. My blood beat a steady rhythm in my ears. I strained to hear any unusual noises that may have emanated from the other end of the hallway. Hyper vigilant, I waited for someone to come down the hall, to make a movement, a noise, something. Beneath my soles, a slight trembling vibrated through the thinner padding of the hallway floor.

"Cin," Jimmy spoke in a voice loud enough to be heard by anyone who may have been lurking in the hall. Inadvertently I jumped.

"Shh," I whispered. "Do you want them to hear you?"

"Who? Sheen and Carl?" A glimmer of mirth hid in the way that he asked the question and I risked a glance over my shoulder to look at him. A muted laugh shook his body, the source of the vibrations underneath my feet.

"No. Whoever made you pull me down here."

"No one made me do anything. I just wanted to get you alone before the wedding started."

"Oh," my mouth popped open with a snap. "You could have just said that."

"But where's the fun in that?" he asked. The mischievous look that rippled across his face caused an echoing growl to build in the recesses of my chest.

"You jerk! You scared me to death. Again." I yelled and then, because I knew he could take it, punched him in the chest.

"I guess I deserved that," he coughed. "I should have learned the last time, huh?"

"Yes, yes you should have. Now what was so important that you wanted to get me alone?"

"Um… ah… I wanted to ask you something." He stammered.

A hand reached for the pocket of his slacks and I took a step back to admire Libby's stylish handiwork. Somewhere he had found mousse and used it to arrange his hair neatly. I would definitely need to buy him some later. From head to toe, the man looked put together. Even though I thought that I had some sort of inkling how Jimmy would look in his tuxedo, I was dead wrong. The picture of the vest Libby showed in her apartment what felt like eons ago did nothing to describe how amazing Jimmy looked. A pinstripe tie lay around his neck waiting to be tied. My fingers itched to fix it for him, to complete his appearance. I held up a finger and beckoned him over.

"Hmm?" he stepped over, but kept his hand in his pocket.

"Let me do your tie."

My fingers fumbled with the knot for a moment before they remembered how the pattern went. Back before the divorce, any time Mom and Dad went out for a fancy dinner or to a big meeting, Dad always asked me to tie his ties for him. It was sort of a tradition. He hesitated to tell Mom that he never learned how to tie one himself, and didn't want to bother learning at his age.

"Now what were you going to ask me?"

"Oh... I was just going to ask you to… Well I was going to ask you to mend my appearance for me, but it seems you've already noticed that necessity and taken steps to remedy it."

I meant to give him a nonverbal scolding, one where he would understand that it was quite nonessential for him to phrase his sentences so formally, but my facial muscles froze looking into his eyes. That odd light flowed from them again, one that they gave off at times when something special happened, but as it had the last time, the answer as to why he stared at me so intently, eluded me. I waited on baited breath for him to say something more that may aid my search, but his expression quickly modified itself. In a flash I could read scores of different, more infuriating emotions before it finally settled into his natural, self-satisfied smirk.

"There," I murmured when I finished flattening out the necktie. I pressed both palms onto his chest and giggled nervously, struggling to break the ice. "You know you clean up really well, Neutron."

"Thanks, and ah… Don't tell Sheen, but he's wrong to think that Libby's the most beautiful woman here. You look stunning."

"Yeah right, Nerdtron. Did you forget to turn on the fume hood again? I'm eight months pregnant…"

"Seven and a half" he reminded me in a quiet whisper.

I rolled my eyes and continued, "…and wearing purple. I must look like a giant grape or something."

He held a finger to my lips to quiet me and gently murmured, "It doesn't take a genius to see how gorgeous you are, but if it did, I would be overqualified."

"You are such a cheese ball."

"No way! You know I'm smooth."

"Really?" I raised a skeptical brow at him. "And how many girls has that smooth line worked on?"

"Thus far?" he queried and I nodded. "Only one, and she's slightly biased in my favor."

"Your mom doesn't count, King Cranium."

"Ouch, Cindy. That hurts," he held a hand to his sternum like I delivered a physical wound to his ego.

"Aw does wittle baby Jimmy need someone to kiss it and make it awl better?" I batted my eyelashes at him and jutted out my lower lip in a picturesque pout.

"If you're offering,"

"I'm not," I told him with an impish grin. "You'll smudge my lipstick and we still have a wedding to attend to. I bet Carl would if you asked nicely though."

"Why did I choose to date such a tease?" he lamented. He took a step closer and like a fish caught on a hook, used his arm to reel me in until we were pressed together. I could feel every breath he took. In spite of myself, blood flooded my cheeks, and while I struggled to contain myself, the baby kicked, just hard enough for Jimmy to feel. He looked down in awe just long enough for me to regain my composure.

"You date me because your natural scientifically based curiosity demands that you figure out the how's and why's of the universe and I'm one of those enigmas that leaves you guessing and you assume by dating me it might give you some insight into solving the riddle that is me."

"Uh actually I was thinking it was because I was offering myself up as a sacrifice for the good of mankind to have you distracted with a perpetual battle of wits with someone who can adequately engage you, but that works too. You know who you sounded like just now with that oration?"

"No."

"Me," he grinned wickedly

"Oh Lord, help us. I'm turning into Nerdtron," I rolled my eyes and nudged him back towards the room the boys were using. "Now enough gratuitous flirting. I'm here on business. Libby sent me to check on you."

"Me? That's so sweet of her," he chortled.

"Ha. I meant all of you. Are you guys ready?"

"I am. I don't know about the others." He tossed his head to the side towards the door. "How's Libby?"

"Panicking," I muttered, remembering her anxious fussing. "Sheen?"

"Eh," Jimmy scratched the back of his neck and pulled an interesting face. His brows snapped together like he was in pain, but his mouth curled up in a grin. "The wedding planner kicked him out of the sanctuary until 5 minutes before the ceremony because he started yelling at the florists."

"What!?" I slapped a hand to my forehead. "Let me in there!"

Knowing better than to argue with me about this, Jimmy jumped out of the way. He didn't move fast enough for my liking, and so I barged past him into the room. Behind me the doorknob and the wall collided with a bang. A muffled "oof" followed from Jimmy as the door ricocheted into him. A soft hiss caught my attention first and I threw a glance at the right corner of the room where Carl stood. He repeatedly drew calming puffs on his inhaler. He glanced warily at Sheen in the same manner he would watch a hungry bear. Sheen prowled across the room. His hands clenched into fists at interchanging intervals, reminding me of a cat kneading a blanket. Though his back faced the door, I could still hear the constant murmur as he inveighed against the wedding industry.

"Deep breaths Sheen," I called lightheartedly.

"Cindy! Praise Ultra Lord you're here! You'll agree with me. The wedding planner is being ridiculous. How are the florists going to know where to put the hydrangeas if someone doesn't tell them exactly where to put them?"

"I didn't even know you knew what hydrangeas were Sheen," Jimmy remarked.

Sheen glared at Jimmy for a moment, which he brushed off with a shrug. Grabbing my hand, Jimmy tugged me across the room. With Carl looking on enviously, he deftly hopped up and took a seat. Jimmy beckoned me to the counter and patted the top, urging me to join him. For a second time that day I pointed to my swollen abdomen. Turning my back to him, I opened my mouth to reassure Sheen that his worry over his wife-to-be's fastidiousness was unfounded, but not before Sheen launched into another explosive tirade that rivaled any of my own.

"He's been like this for a half hour," Jimmy leaned down to whisper in my ear. "I'm surprised Carl's inhaler hasn't died on him yet."

"Jeeze," I rubbed a manicured hand over my face. "Libby was just saying something along those lines. These two were definitely made for each other."

"What was your first clue?" Jimmy whispered back. "Hey Sheen," he called a little louder. "Calm down. Ask yourself, 'What would Ultra Lord do?'"

Sheen threw Jimmy a surprised glance as though Jimmy finally lost his mind, a look that was echoed on both Carl's and my face.

"Pfft! That's easy. He wouldn't bother with this. He'd blast through the walls with his magma cannons, grab his Ultra Lady and fly to Planet Mektar to have one of their priests perform the ritual," he replied without hesitation.

He jammed his hands into his pockets and turned his back to us, rambling inarticulately about our unenlightened perspectives and need of education in all things Ultra Lord and weddings.

"Sheen would you relax? Libby's not going to leave you standing at the alter just because the hydrangeas are a centimeter too far to the left."

"But… but… but…" he sputtered.

"No," I cut him off sharply. "Now are you ready to go? You have your black socks?"

"I don't understand why they have to be black," he whined.

"Just answer the question."

"What question?"

"Do you have black socks or not?"

"Oh that one," he held up his pant legs to show me that they were indeed clad in black socks. "Check."

"Shoes polished?"

Sheen nodded and I held up another finger to indicate that I marked it off my mental list.

"Pants and shirt pressed?"

"Check and check."

"Vest?"

"Check"

"Jacket?"

"Got it!"

"Pocket Square?"

"What the heck is a pocket square?"

"Ooh! I know!" Carl raised his hand in the air. "It's the folded square hankie thingy that goes in your pocket in case you need to blow your nose"

"You remembered underwear?" Jimmy piped up from the countertop.

"Dang! I knew I forgot something!" Sheen slapped a hand to his forehead and scrambled for his duffel bag

"And on that note… I'm headed back to Libby. You guys should be fine. See you in ten."

* * *

The wedding typified the core of the two's personalities. From the way Sheen bounced on the tips of his toes, straining his neck to be the first person to catch a glimpse of his bride, to the way the candlelight captured the joy that bloomed from Sheen and Libby when their eyes met across the crowded room that spread over the spectators bathing them in a soft glow until it seemed they too absorbed the light. Happy tears cascaded down Libby's cheeks, sparkling like diamonds. The golden gossamer threads intertwined into her braids threw a speck of light into Sheen's eye about halfway through the ceremony breaking his focus.

"Sheen!" Libby growled, though her smile still shone brightly on her face.

"Huh?" he asked, shaking his head to clear it. "Sorry you just look so stunning. Where were we?"

"This is the part where you say I do," Jimmy stage-whispered from behind his hand.

"Oh. Thanks," he turned to Libby and declared in a firm voice that would cement their future together. "I do, always."

The rest of the ceremony flowed like a dream out of any little girl's daydreams until Commander Baker asked for the rings. Sheen turned to Jimmy.

"I have the ring," he chuckled.

A chorus of murmured titters passed around the church. Jimmy blushed and ducked his head, but flashed me a quick wink as he did, so I knew he was only feigning embarrassment. As Sheen slipped the ring onto Libby's finger a honking noise resounded through the sanctuary and I hazarded a glance behind Jimmy to see Carl blowing his nose into a handkerchief. When I finally looked back at the happy couple, Sheen held Libby in his arms and was kissing her passionately. Applause and whistles broke out in crowd of spectators as the Commander announced them husband and wife. Little did we know that the happy feeling wouldn't be around for much longer.


End file.
